Signa Group raises 1.2 billion euro in equity

The Austrian retail and real estate group Signa Holding GmbH executed a capital increase of 700 million euros (around 775 million US dollars or 622 million British pounds) by its existing shareholders last week. Moreover, its largest subsidiary Signa Prime Selection AG, as the flagship real estate company of the Signa Group, will execute a 500 million euros (around 554 million US dollars or 444 million British pounds) capital increase tomorrow, September 17th, 2019, which is already fully subscribed. This will raise the group’s equity to 1.2 billion euros in total.

“The proceeds from the capital increases will be used for future acquisitions and bolstering the Signa Group’s liquidity reserves. After closing of the Kaufhof transaction, the entire group has access to liquidity reserves of more than 1 billion euros for future growth. The Group’s total gross asset value in real estate by the end of the year 2019 exceeds 20 billion euros, which positions Signa as one of the biggest real estate owners in Europe,” said the company in the press release.

Apart from Signa Holding, key strategic shareholders in Signa Prime include the German endowment RAG Stiftung, the two German insurance companies R+V and LVM, the listed investment company of the Peugeot family FFP Group, Madison International Realty, Longbow Finance as well as various successful European entrepreneurs and their family offices.

After merging HBC Europe and Signa’s Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH at the end of last year, Signa completely took over the German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof for one billion euros in June of this year.