Capitec: Viceroy report is riddled with inaccuracies
Claims send share price 25% lower in intraday trade, while the Reserve Bank says the bank is solvent and well capitalised
Capitec wasted no time in tackling what it said were "factual errors" made by Viceroy Research in a bruising report the short sellers issued on Tuesday, which sent the stock 25% lower in intraday trade — it closed 2.96% weaker at R915.92. Viceroy’s report was riddled with "opinions" not informed by accurate information, said Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie. Viceroy, which was betting on the share price falling by shorting the stock, had not verified any of its assumptions with Capitec. "We have instructed our attorneys to take it up with the Financial Services Board [FSB] because we are not happy with the way they go about it." But Viceroy’s Gabriel Bernarde told Business Day that it did not see "being wrong" as a probability, which is why it had not contacted Capitec. "We go to pretty extensive lengths to back-test our assumptions." Viceroy shot to prominence in December when it issued a report on "Steinhoff’s skeletons", a day after the retail group admitted accounting irregularities me...
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