Frankfurt — Steinhoff International Holdings rejected "allegations of dishonesty" made in a Manager-Magazin report that CEO Markus Jooste is among employees being investigated by German prosecutors in a 2015 case linked to possible accounting fraud. Substantial information in the article is "wrong or misleading", the South African clothing and food retailer said in a statement Thursday. Referring to the start of the 2015 probe, Steinhoff said it appointed legal and external audit firms in Germany to investigate the matter and they concluded that "no evidence exists" that the company broke the country’s commercial laws, it said. The stock pared record losses after the statement, trading 10% lower at 3.80 euros at the close in Frankfurt, the lowest since January 2016. They earlier fell as much as 17%. About 68.5 million shares traded, almost 18 times the three-month daily average. The report in Manager-Magazin relates to a case that began just before Steinhoff moved its primary listin...
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