(Bloomberg) -- Signa Holding’s court-appointed insolvency administrator bemoaned a complex corporate structure and lack of management control in his first report on efforts to salvage Rene Benko’s property and retail empire.

Lawyer Christof Stapf suggested creating a group-wide steering committee for the restructuring and said that the short-term liquidity requirements needed to keep overhaul efforts alive will exceed the €3 million ($3.28 million) already pledged by Benko, according to a statement published after a creditor meeting Tuesday. 

The group has already begun selling off some of its assets.

The largest insolvency in Austria’s history is turning into a chaotic rush to provide corporate transparency and draw fresh funding despite the severe headwinds facing the global property industry. Over years of rapid expansion, 46-year-old Benko lapped up some of Europe’s most prized luxury property assets, including Selfridges in London and Berlin’s KaDeWe, luring prominent billionaires and sovereign wealth funds as investors. Now, he’s struggling to contain the fallout from a meltdown that has creditors looking to recoup billions.

Benko hasn’t held a formal management position in any of his companies since 2013, when he resigned as chief executive officer following a suspended court sentence for bribery. Still, as chairman of Signa’s advisory board, he has been instrumental in overseeing some of the group’s largest transactions.

The insolvency administrator has already set several liquidation plans in motion, and has hired Deloitte for forensic data, legal and financial analysis. A court-ordered data backup, he said, was “proving difficult but is now underway.” He is also reviewing several of Signa’s business deals from the past year to identify whether they may be “relevant to further proceedings.”

Today’s statement illustrates the enormity of this task: a preliminary organizational chart of the Signa group comprised a total of 46 pages, the equivalent of about 5.7 square meters (61 square feet); the size of an average bathroom. 

“The review has shown that there is a lack of management capacity with overarching knowledge in the group’s middle management and that the holding company has recently only partially fulfilled its control function,” Stapf said in the statement. 

Signa’s investors include Austrian construction tycoon Hans Peter Haselsteiner and the Peugeot Family. A list of 273 creditors filed by Signa includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Julius Baer Group Ltd.

Austrian law doesn’t allow for group-wide insolvencies. Signa Holding, a privately-held company which for years delayed the publication of its annual account statements, does not consolidate Signa Prime and Signa Development, the two main property-owning units whose assets were valued at more than €23 billion at the end of 2023. Those two entities have yet to file for insolvency, and have been pursuing restructuring efforts on their own.

Creditor representatives and a senior legal representative for the Austrian government have warned about the intransparency and complexity of the situation. But according to the insolvency administrator, cooperation from Signa Holding’s executives has allowed the company to continue the restructuring at its own initiative.

More than half of creditors will ultimately need to sign off on Signa’s restructuring plans by February 12th, which must include the repayment of at least 30% of liabilities within two years.

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