Realty investor eyes wealth funds

Austrian real estate investor Rene Benko is in talks with the sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Abu Dhabi to lure fresh capital to back his expansion.

Benko, 41, founder and principal shareholder of Signa Holding GmbH, met executives from Norges Bank Investment Management and Mubadala Investment Co in recent months to present financials and strategy of his closely held companies, as per sources.

Benko has expanded the retail arm of his group with the acquisition of furniture chain Kika/Leiner in Austria and Hudson’s Bay Co.’s German Kaufhof department stores. The Kaufhof deal, announced on Tuesday, includes a property portfolio and will cost the investor €1.6 billion overall.

Benko was part of an Austrian business delegation that travelled to Abu Dhabi in April to seek deals with the emirate. At a meeting with Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Benko said Signa hoped to conclude an agreement with the wealth fund about investments in Europe. There are now “concrete” talks about such a deal, one of the people said.

Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund and Mubadala are looking at an investment in Signa Prime Selection AG, Benko’s vehicle for trophy assets, the people said. That would fit well with the Norwegian fund, which has snapped up a number of properties across the world, including large buildings on London’s Regent Street, New York’s Times Square and Paris’s Champs Elysees.

With 23 properties worth €8.5 billion, Signa Prime Selection is best known for Berlin’s KaDeWe store.