SIGNA Group
Founded in 2010 by Austrian entrepreneur René Benko and based in Austria, SIGNA Prime Selection ("SIGNA Prime") is a private real estate company specialising in commercial and office property, mainly in Germany, Austria, the UK and Switzerland.
SIGNA Prime Selection’s strategy is to make long-term investments in high-quality properties in prime innercity locations, some of which offer substantial value enhancement potential. The company is controlled by SIGNA Holding GmbH, an Austrian group whose operations include real estate and retail (including department store chains Karstadt and Kaufhof).
At 31 December 2022, SIGNA Prime Selection had almost €18 billion of assets, including iconic properties such as major department stores (KaDeWe in Berlin, Globus in Switzerland, Oberpollinger and Alte Akademie in Munich) and the Park Hyatt hotel in Vienna.
- Investment date
- 2019
Peugeot Invest's investment
In June 2019, Peugeot Invest (via its wholly owned subsidiary Peugeot Invest UK Ltd) acquired a 5% stake in SIGNA Prime Selection for €186 million. The stake was purchased from SIGNA Holding GmbH, SIGNA Development Selection’s majority shareholder.
In September 2019, when the group carried out its capital increase, Peugeot Invest took up its full entitlement, investing a further €25 million. In an extraordinary general meeting in July 2022, SIGNA Prime Selection’s shareholders approved a €750 million capital increase, in which Peugeot Invest took part by investing a further €10 million.
In 2022
In the first half of 2022, SIGNA Prime Selection entered a new country by acquiring the Selfridges department stores in the United Kingdom for around €3 million in partnership with Central Group. In the second half of 2022, the group was affected by a major shift in the economic environment and an increase in inflation, which led to index-linked rent increases for SIGNA Prime Selection properties. In the third quarter, one of SIGNA Prime Selection’s main tenants – Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof (GKK) – entered a safeguard procedure, partly as a result of the Covid crisis, although this did not have a material impact on the group.