Fressnapf

"Torsten Toeller, founder and owner of the pet food chain "Fressnapf", had just sold his Trinkgut stores to the retail giant Edeka and was looking for profitable investments."

"Wiedeking was the first to suspect, perhaps even too soon, a Ponzi scheme. That is, Signa could only pay its high dividends because it kept raising fresh money from banks and private lenders. Above all, Wiedeking was annoyed that Benko did not present him with all the figures. And he threatened with a special audit, which he wanted to enforce as a supervisory board member, as he said in discussions with various media. "I suspected as a shareholder that the figures presented by Mr. Benko did not match the ongoing business," Wiedeking said in retrospect. "I confronted him with questions that he could not answer sufficiently for me. He could not or would not give me satisfactory answers. That is why we went our separate ways. In hindsight, given the evidence and allegations now against Signa, I must assume that my fears were all justified." For Wiedeking, the commitment and timely exit paid off. He managed to more than double his investment within a few years. He chose reason over greed because he did not trust Benko's promises of an even rosier future. However, the ruler of the Signa conglomerate managed to prevent a mass exodus among his investors. Neither the founder of "Fressnapf" Torsten Toeller nor Niki Lauda, whom Wiedeking also tried to persuade to leave, followed the manager."

"Most of the shareholders did not have Benko's private foundation as a contracting partner, but the holding company. Roland Berger, who had invested in low percentages in the Signa companies Prime, Development, and Retail, managed to partially exit. Apparently, he pressed for payment from Benko early on and exchanged about half of his Prime shares for money. Berger benefited from the high market value of the shares, which had multiplied since his entry. However, at the end of the day, Berger will likely exit his Signa investment with a small double-digit million loss, Torsten Toeller will lose a triple-digit million amount, and in the fiscal year 2023, he will write off a book value of 196 million euros, which can be read in the annual financial statement of "Fressnapf" Luxembourg."

"Most of the shareholders did not have Benko's private foundation as a contracting partner, but the holding company. Roland Berger, who had invested in low percentages in the Signa companies Prime, Development, and Retail, managed to partially exit. Apparently, he pressed for payment from Benko early on and exchanged about half of his Prime shares for money. Berger benefited from the high market value of the shares, which had multiplied since his entry. However, at the end of the day, Berger will likely exit his Signa investment with a small double-digit million loss, Torsten Toeller will lose a triple-digit million amount, and in the fiscal year 2023, he will write off a book value of 196 million euros, which can be read in the annual financial statement of "Fressnapf" Luxembourg."