A day after it announced plans to revive its Shoprite merger, Steinhoff saw its share price tumble amid allegations that its South African group chief executive is being investigated for alleged accounting fraud.<\/p>\n
The report, which first appeared in a German publication, Manager Magazin<\/em>, cites no sources but states that prosecutors were in the process of auditing the company’s books in the northern German city of Oldenburg, near to where Steinhoff’s European business is based.<\/p>\n The report said that investigations began as far\u00a0back as 2015 with a focus on whether revenues had been inflated in the South African retail group’s books.<\/p>\n Following the publishing of the report,\u00a0Steinhoff’s German-listed shares dropped to a record low and were down 5.7%\u00a0to 3.99 euros at 08h12 GMT.<\/p>\n Its JSE-listed stock was down 9% by midday. Steinhoff is considered the seventh biggest JSE-listed company with a market cap of R285 billion in 2017.<\/p>\n The company acknowledged the article and said it was in the process of formally responding to the issue. The Oldenburg prosecutors office had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Steinhoff Africa Retail Limited (Star), a subsidiary of Steinhoff, announced its intention to list its issued ordinary share capital on the main board of JSE before the end of September 2017.<\/p>\n The group also indicated that it plans to\u00a0revive<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>its merger with retailer Shoprite.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Star Group has secured options which, once exercised, will result in Star acquiring a strategic investment in Shoprite, one of Africa\u2019s leading food and grocery retailers with a track record of successful growth and expansion in South Africa and across the continent,\u201d said Steinhoff.<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Reuters<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
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