---
title: "SIGNA Prime: what the 2019 accounts actually describe"
language: en
canonical: https://osint.v3rta.com/dossiers/signa-holding/companies/prime-accounts/
as_of: 2026-10-10
keywords: ["SIGNA Holding GmbH","SIGNA Prime Selection","SIGNA Development Selection","René Benko","Familie Benko Privatstiftung","Laura Privatstiftung","Ingbe Stiftung","Supraholding","ownership","insolvency","corporate governance","asset recovery","criminal proceedings"]
---

# SIGNA Prime: what the 2019 accounts actually describe

- Jurisdiction: AT (AT)
- Company register: 353435h (Austrian Firmenbuch)

**Question.** What do the 2019 accounts show about Prime’s assets, financing and governance?

**Answer.** The accounts describe a separately managed property group with project-level financing, substantial valuation-based income, direct and indirect holdings and a dated board structure. They are not the Holding’s standalone accounts or proof of later solvency.

## What this research adds

- Analysis: This page is the detailed home for the 2019 financial and corporate snapshot and distinguishes accounting measures from legal shareholdings and later insolvency allegations. [s-d113]

## The property group and its reported operating model

- Analysis: SIGNA Prime Selection AG’s 2019 report identifies the company as registered in Innsbruck under FN353435h, with a Vienna branch. Management described two core strategies: long-term properties and new investments with development potential. The long-term portfolio contained 24 properties with a reported market value of EUR7 billion; planned new investment was about EUR6.7 billion, alongside 33 additional Kaufhof properties. The consolidation basis covered 250 entities, including 21 accounted for under the equity method. A separate count of 298 companies in which Prime had at least a 50% direct or indirect interest uses a different measure. The full appendix has 251 CO and 21 EQ rows, or 272 before its 12 NC rows; its difference from management’s 250 remains unreconciled. The complete dated appendix has its own record page. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: Management’s autonomous-operation and arm’s-length statements are its contemporaneous account, not an independent conclusion. The 250 consolidation entities and 298 majority-held companies use different measures.
- Analysis: Management called Prime autonomous and said services obtained from other SIGNA companies were purchased on arm’s-length terms with termination rights retained. Those services included insurance, office infrastructure, financing support and IT. Prime also identified leases to the Galeria Karstadt-Kaufhof group, KaDeWe group and Am Hof 2 hotel operator, while stating that it was not involved in its tenants’ operating businesses. These are the group’s contemporaneous descriptions of organization and contracts; they do not independently determine every later dispute over dealings within Signa. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: Management’s autonomous-operation and arm’s-length statements are its contemporaneous account, not an independent conclusion. The 250 consolidation entities and 298 majority-held companies use different measures.

## Debt, collateral and valuation-based earnings

- Analysis: At the end of 2019, the consolidated accounts show EUR6,033.961 million in bank liabilities, EUR716.5 million in bonds and EUR1,054.669 million in profit-participation rights. A separate LTV table reports a total of EUR6,929.004 million by combining the bank figure, bonds and EUR178.543 million of bank liabilities under IFRS5. Despite the table’s wording, this total must not be treated as bank loans to which the bonds are then added again. Reported LTV was about 46%, and management stated that all financing covenants were complied with at the reporting date. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: The table labels its total as bank liabilities, but its arithmetic includes the separately listed bonds; it must not be read as EUR 6.929004 billion of bank loans plus bonds again.
- Documented: SIGNA Prime's 2019 consolidated accounts show EUR 6,033.961 million bank liabilities, versus EUR 4,391.396 million in 2018, EUR 716.5 million bonds and EUR 1,054.669 million profit-participation rights. KPMG Austria audited the accounts. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: These are historical 2019 consolidated figures, not the standalone Holding’s liabilities or a current assessment of solvency. The retained English audit report is a translation; its German original prevails in discrepancies.
- Analysis: The accounts describe financing arranged principally at project level, with individual companies or properties covering their debt service. All bank liabilities were reported as property-secured. Mortgages and mortgage certificates totalled EUR6,716.980 million, versus EUR4,794.942 million the previous year, but not every certificate had actually been registered. Additional security included pledges, assignments and guarantees. Those security amounts are not equivalent to sale proceeds or proof that collateral would cover every eventual creditor loss. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: Mortgage certificates and liens are security amounts, not equivalent to realized property values; not all certificates were actually entered in the land register.
- Analysis: Prime reported equity of EUR4,722.728 million and EPRA NAV of EUR5,014.381 million, or EUR78.53 per share. Net income of EUR909.138 million was principally driven by fair-value and equity-accounted gains, against revenue of EUR309.840 million. Its cash-flow statement separately records EUR148.580 million in dividends paid, EUR499.130 million from capital increases, EUR2,771.218 million in new long-term borrowings and EUR2,249.312 million in repayments. The income statement and cash movements answer different questions: valuation-based accounting profit is not the same measure as cash available to repay loans. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: These are historical 2019 consolidated figures, not the standalone Holding’s liabilities or a current assessment of solvency. The retained English audit report is a translation; its German original prevails in discrepancies.
- Documented: Prime's 2019 accounts report equity EUR 4,722.728 million, EPRA NAV EUR 5,014.381 million, 63,852,751 shares and NAV EUR 78.53 per share, with LTV 46%. They state compliance with all financing covenants at end-2019. The LTV table's EUR 6,929.004 million total includes EUR 716.5 million bonds, EUR 6,033.961 million bank liabilities and EUR 178.543 million bank liabilities under IFRS 5. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: The table labels its total as bank liabilities, but its arithmetic includes the separately listed bonds; it must not be read as EUR 6.929004 billion of bank loans plus bonds again.

## Legal vehicles, guarantees and dated governance

- Analysis: The participation list reports group-perspective interests held directly or through subsidiaries. It includes 100% consolidated interests in Kaufhaus Tyrol, Am Hof 2, Graben 19, Tuchlauben and various project vehicles, alongside 94.9% interests in several GALERIA Properties companies and 93.4% in its Co-Invest company. Laura-named joint-venture vehicles were shown at 50% and equity-accounted; their names do not establish Laura Privatstiftung as the other shareholder. The individual Luxembourg and German companies remain separate even when their names refer to the same property or retail portfolio. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: The word Laura in the vehicles’ names does not establish ownership by Laura Privatstiftung; only Prime’s 50% group interest is directly shown.
- Documented: Prime's end-2019 participation list reports 100% group equity interests and full consolidation of Kaufhaus Tyrol, the Innsbruck centre vehicles, Renngasse 2, Am Hof 2, Kärntner Straße 11 vehicles, Graben 19, Tuchlauben, Mariahilfer Straße 38-40, Georg-Coch-Platz vehicles, Waltherpark, Viva Virgolo, Prime Assets and Prime Capital Invest, among others. Holdings may be direct or through subsidiaries. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: The list reports group-perspective direct or indirect equity interests as of 31 December 2019; it is not a current direct-shareholder register.
- Documented: Prime's end-2019 participation list reports 94.9% consolidated group interests in GALERIA Properties Holding S.à r.l., GALERIA Properties Beteiligung S.à r.l. and GALERIA Properties GmbH, and 93.4% in GALERIA Properties Co-Invest S.à r.l. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: GALERIA Properties is a group label, not interchangeable with each of its separate Luxembourg and German legal companies; interests are historical consolidated group percentages.
- Documented: Prime's end-2019 participation list reports 100% group interests in the Elbtower vehicles and DtB Eschborn Holding, Invest, Beteiligung and Objekt vehicles, 89.9% in SIGNA DTB Eschborn GmbH and 44.4% in SIGNA 13 Eschborn Objektfonds. It also lists fully consolidated Gänsemarktpassage, Carschhaus and Köln Hohe Straße vehicles. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: These are historical group-perspective participation percentages; asset-named holding companies and property-management vehicles remain distinct.
- Analysis: Prime also disclosed unconditional guarantees for bonds issued by CM2017 and CM2019, distinct from its group interest in Prime Capital Market. The CM2017 bond originally issued at EUR175 million had reached EUR315 million by 2019, with other CM2017 issues and a separate EUR100 million CM2019 bond. These are dated financing terms, not evidence that amounts were ultimately repaid. The 2019 board record names Stadlhuber as management chair, Pirolt, Herzberg and Sauerbier as members and Gusenbauer as supervisory chair, with the other members retained in the complete register. A date-free account of those offices would misleadingly make historical governance appear current. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: The disclosed maturities and amounts are historical contract terms; the accounts do not prove later repayment. Prime’s Capital Market bond is distinct from the explicitly guaranteed CM 2017 and CM 2019 bonds.
- Documented: Prime's 2019 accounts name Christoph Stadlhuber as management-board chair from 13 December 2012, Manuel Pirolt as member from 19 June 2013, Timo Herzberg from 1 January 2017 and Tobias Sauerbier from 1 March 2019; Bernhard Jost was an authorized signatory. Alfred Gusenbauer chaired the supervisory board, with Karl Stoss as deputy and Matthias Cordier, Robert Peugeot, Susanne Riess, Jürgen-Johann Rupp, Karl Samstag, Karl Sevelda and Rainer de Backere as members; Helmut Linssen left on 18 July 2019. [s-d113]
  - Qualification: This is the 2019 reporting-date governance record; absent departure dates here do not establish that these offices remain current.

## Sources

- [s-d113] Company statement source · s-d113