Gigaba to meet Steinhoff stakeholders on ‘debacle’
The retail group confirms it will restate its 2016 results, causing a renewed sell-off in the stock
Steinhoff has confirmed that it will have to restate its 2016 financial results, which “can no longer be relied upon,” causing a renewed sell-off in the stock, which closed 9% lower at R8.92 on Thursday. The statement appears to vindicate the findings of Vicerory Research, a three-man US team that spent months prising open a series of opaque off-balance sheet deals to find that the furniture and household goods retailer’s 2016 results may have to be adjusted by up to €1.047bn lower. Jason Forssman, a fund manager at Ashburton Investments said: “This is not a 2016-17 issue. I wouldn’t be surprised if prior year earnings need to be restated too.” Steinhoff said that on the advice of an independent committee of the supervisory board, it had formed a view “that the validity and recoverability of certain Steinhoff Europe balance sheet assets under scrutiny in the 2017 audit work, are also relevant to the 2016 consolidated financial statements”. Such has been the razing of shareholder val...
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