Christoph Gröner: Serious allegations against real estate king in insolvency report

An insolvency report, reported by "Business Insider" ("BI"), now apparently casts a rather negative light once again on Christoph Gröner's personality and business activities. According to "BI," the Leipzig District Court's report on Gröner Group GmbH from May 2025, which was apparently prepared by attorney and insolvency administrator Philipp Hackländer of the law firm White & Case, contains "massive allegations."

For example, the Gröner Group's insolvency occurred earlier than Gröner had filed for. This allegation is likely to be of interest to the public prosecutor's office in Leipzig, where Gröner is being investigated for possible insolvency delay. In response to a request from manager magazin, a Gröner spokesperson stated that they disagree with the insolvency administrator's assessment: "In our opinion, Gröner Group GmbH was never insolvent or over-indebted." They regularly prepared liquidity forecasts for the company, which allegedly demonstrated secure liquidity. They declined to comment on further details, as a public prosecutor's investigation is ongoing.

According to the expert report, there were also inconsistencies, both in the company's balance sheets and in a restructuring carried out in the summer of 2024, according to the "BI." The insolvency administrator is also critical of the fact that Gröner's company apparently transferred more than €31 million to the family's private asset management company since 2022. Gröner stated through his spokesperson that this allegation "is completely unfounded in our view." Gröner Group GmbH neither transferred assets nor carried out any unusual transactions. The restructuring carried out in 2024 was based on valuations as of December 31, 2023, and was openly communicated to all lenders. "All measures were transparent, comprehensible, and in line with applicable valuation and disclosure principles."

Some details from the report cast former real estate magnate Gröner as particularly questionable: According to the "BI," insolvency administrator Hackländer describes how, at the beginning of his work, he was presented with a 2022 balance sheet showing that the Gröner Group had "receivables and other assets" against dozens of associated companies totaling around 643 million euros. What seemed like a glimmer of hope, given the company's more than 433 million euros in debt, turned out to be deceptive just a few weeks later: "In an email dated January 29, 2025, Mr. Christoph Gröner then pointed out that the aforementioned annual financial statements (as of December 31, 2022) were 'not representative,'" the "BI" quotes the insolvency administrator as saying.

Instead, Gröner presented a new, preliminary annual financial statement – ​​and this suddenly contained hardly any receivables that Hackländer could have turned into money.

The Gröner Group allegedly cited a restructuring in the summer of 2024 as the reason for the disappearance of the assets. However, according to Hackländer, transfers were carried out in a "dubious" manner. According to "BI," the insolvency administrator writes: "The new holding company, CG Group GmbH, currently holds direct and indirect stakes in over 70 companies – mostly real estate companies – without an appropriate purchase price being paid to the debtor."

However, according to "BI," a spokeswoman for Gröner pointed out that the investments were "sometimes burdened with significant financial obligations." The purchase price "regularly reflects the assumption of these liabilities."

Possible delay in filing for insolvency, transfer of assets beyond the control of the insolvency administrator – the allegations against Christoph Gröner are apparently serious. However, he appears to lack insight – quite the opposite. Instead, the spokesperson launches a counterattack: "We acknowledge the insolvency administrator's work. However, we disagree with many of his assessments. In our view, some of the public statements deviate significantly from the actual developments and the available documents," she said.

Instead, the focus is on measures that would result in the breakup of the acquired companies. "In our view, this will lead to significant disadvantages, even for companies not directly affected by the insolvency, particularly due to public statements by the insolvency administrator," the spokesperson told BI.

It will probably take some time before it becomes clear which side is right.