Austrian investor René Benko, founder of the Signa property and retail group, has filed for insolvency, a spokeswoman for the Innsbruck regional court confirmed to dpa on Thursday.
The judge is expected to decide on the application by the entrepreneur in the coming days, the spokeswoman said. She emphasized that reports that Benko had filed for so-called private insolvency were not correct.
The legal representation of the republic of Austria had previously filed an insolvency petition against 46-year-old Benko at the regional court.
Benko had not yet paid in full a promised subsidy for the insolvent holding company of the Signa Group, it said.
Until a few months ago, Benko was considered one of the richest Austrians. According to the US magazine Forbes, his worth had peaked at $6 billion in 2023.
However, at the beginning of December, Forbes removed him from its international billionaires list in light of Signa's growing problems.
Benko's convoluted corporate empire includes several projects in neighbouring Germany: the Elbtower project in Hamburg, the luxury department store KaDeWe in Berlin and the department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, which is also insolvent.
Benko has not publicly commented on the decline of Signa in recent months.
As a 17-year-old, Benko was already earning good money by converting attics in his home city of Innsbruck.
This was later followed by a fairytale rise to become a property tycoon who rose to super-rich status with skyscrapers, shopping centres and other buildings in prime locations.
Signa had expanded strongly during the low-interest phase of recent years. In the wake of rising interest rates, energy prices and construction costs, the group slipped into crisis.
