Steinhoff International Holdings NV chief executive officer Marcus Jooste resigned with immediate effect after the global furniture and clothing retailer reported irregularities in its accounts that require further investigation.<\/p>\n
The owner of the France-based Conforama furniture store chain and Pep clothing stores in Africa has appointed auditor PwC to probe the matter, it said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
South African billionaire and chairman of the company, Christo Wiese, will run the company on a temporary basis.<\/p>\n
The retailer, which has origins in South Africa, has a base in Amsterdam and a primary listing in Frankfurt, said Monday it wasn\u2019t able to release audited full-year financial results on Wednesday due to matters related to a criminal and tax investigation in Germany.<\/p>\n
It had previously rejected allegations made in a Manager-Magazin report that Jooste is among employees being investigated by German prosecutors in a 2015 case linked to possible accounting fraud.<\/p>\n
Steinhoff shares have slumped 18% over the past two days, the most since the Frankfurt listing in December 2015. The company has transformed itself in the past four years from a mostly African-focused retailer to an acquisitive powerhouse that now owns Mattress Firm in the US and Poundland in the UK.<\/p>\n
Wiese is South Africa\u2019s fourth-richest person with a net worth of $4.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.<\/p>\n