FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s RAG foundation has written off all of its investments in Rene Benko’s insolvent Signa Group, RAG Chief Executive Bernd Toenjes said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published online on Tuesday.
“That amounts to between 1-2% of our total assets, so it is still a manageable proportion, but it is annoying – one does not like taking steps like that,” Toenjes told the German newspaper.
With the foundation’s assets currently totalling 17.6 billion euros, this amounts to between 180 and 350 million euros, the report said.
Property and retail giant Signa declared insolvency in November after last-ditch attempts to secure fresh funding failed, making it the biggest casualty so far of Europe’s property crash.
Controlled by Austrian magnate Rene Benko, the group was an owner of New York’s Chrysler Building as well as several high-profile projects and department stores across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
“As of today, we no longer have any risk in Signa,” said Toenjes. He said the insolvency could not have been predicted.
“It would be unusual and contractually impossible for you to take your money and disappear when the first storm clouds appear on the horizon,” said Toenjes.
The RAG foundation uses income from diversified investments to fund continuing obligations resulting from the end of hard coal mining along the Ruhr and Saar rivers and in Ibbenbueren.
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr; Editing by Leslie Adler)