NEWS ANALYSIS: Steinhoff saga leaves even its critics dazed
This could be as big as the African Bank collapse, says one analyst
By all accounts Stellenbosch, home to Steinhoff and associates PSG and Shoprite, was in a state of shock on Wednesday. Even those who had been increasingly suspicious of Steinhoff’s more and more complicated acquisitions and financial accounts were stunned by the developments of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. After months of denial, at the 11th-plus hour Steinhoff eventually admitted it was investigating "accounting irregularities". It seems to have had little option. Its auditors would not sign off on the financial 2017 statements because they had not "finalised their review of certain matters and circumstances, most of which were raised by the criminal and tax investigation in Germany", Steinhoff said in a Sens announcement that stunned the market on Monday. Fair Tree Capital’s Jean Pierre Verster believes this could be as big as the African Bank collapse in 2014. It was not only shareholders who looked on in shock as the Steinhoff share collapsed on Wednesday; bankers were ...
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