ON THE MONEY
STUART THEOBALD: Jooste’s obsession with maintaining Steinhoff illusion drove him to cross the line
As facts trickle out about the extent of accounting irregularities at Steinhoff, investors are pondering how not to get caught out again. The share price hit a new low on Friday, falling almost 20% on the day to R4.11, from the R56 before the wheels came off in December. The renewed share-price pressure came after reports by Moneyweb and the German press on leaked e-mails between former CEO Markus Jooste and what look like co-conspirators. Those e-mails make clear that Jooste was manipulating the company’s financials as far back as 2014, and probably earlier, by round-tripping balance-sheet disposals through a separate company into Steinhoff’s income statement. While the e-mails are fragmentary, it looks like Jooste worked with Siegmar Schmidt, the former chief financial officer of Steinhoff Europe, to manipulate Steinhoff’s earnings. Schmidt was at the time head of the ostensibly independent Genesis Investment Holdings. The e-mails show Jooste proposed paying Genesis €130m for nego...
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