Viceroy Research: making waves or catching them?
Viceroy Research’s reports on companies around the world show that, with two notable exceptions, it targeted groups already the subjects of short selling, releasing reports just as their shares collapsed. The US-based short seller captured the imagination of South Africans with its sensational report about Steinhoff International in December. This followed Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste’s resignation and an admission from the retailer that it was investigating accounting irregularities, events which prompted a drop of more than 90% in its market value. But Viceroy — led by former social worker Fraser Perring, and which released its report on Steinhoff two days after shares began declining following a Steinhoff update that its financial results would not be signed off by auditors as they had not finalised their review of criminal and tax issues first raised by German regulators — does not have many admirers. "[Perring] got lucky when his report on Steinhoff coincided with Steinhoff’s co...
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