Signa Holding GmbH founder Rene Benko is ready to hand over control to a restructuring expert, according to Hans Peter Haselsteiner, a shareholder in the company that co-owns London’s Selfridges department stores and New York’s Chrysler Building.

The move would be temporary and is contingent on shareholders agreeing to fund the conglomerate’s turnaround, Haselsteiner said by phone on Friday.

Shareholders called on Benko earlier this week to cede his role as chairman of Signa’s advisory board and to give up his voting rights to German insolvency expert Arndt Geiwitz.

His departure would mean the end of an era for the company, which has long drawn questions about its exponential growth and complex dealings, including with Europe’s most prominent billionaires.

Now, battered by rising interest rates, plunging valuations and a cash squeeze, some of those investors — a list that includes France’s billionaire Peugeot family, Strabag’s Haselsteiner and German transportation tycoon Klaus-Michael Kuehne — are knocking at the Austrian tycoon’s door.

Signa’s luxury developer Prime has tapped Rotschild & Co. to advise on debt refinancing. Holders of €300 million in bonds issued by Signa Development, a smaller unit, have hired Kirkland & Ellis to advise them on discussions with the company.

If approved, the first task of Geiwitz would be to plug funding gaps that have halted construction work, including at Signa’s flagship Elbtower project in Hamburg, Germany.

The prominent restructuring expert in Germany already led insolvency proceedings for Signa’s Galeria department store chain. That process left taxpayers with a €590 million write-off of Covid-era emergency loans.

By Marton Eder, Libby Cherry, and Giulia Morpurgo

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