{"id":216581,"date":"2017-12-14T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=216581"},"modified":"2017-12-14T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T05:45:11","slug":"steinhoff-to-restate-2016-financial-results-as-scandal-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/216581\/steinhoff-to-restate-2016-financial-results-as-scandal-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"Steinhoff to restate 2016 financial results as scandal grows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Steinhoff International Holdings NV, the South African retail giant rocked by an accounting scandal, will restate its 2016 financial results after a probe uncovered fresh concerns.<\/p>\n

The company, which owns the Mattress Firm chain in the US, discovered the problems with its previous year\u2019s balance-sheet accounting while reviewing statements from 2017, according to a filing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2016 consolidated financial statements will need to be restated and can no longer be relied upon,\u201d the company said. \u201cShareholders and other investors in Steinhoff are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement follows a deepening scandal over the company\u2019s finances. Markus Jooste resigned as chief executive officer earlier this month, and the bedding giant appointed auditor PwC to probe accounting irregularities. Moody\u2019s Investors Service cut Steinhoff\u2019s rating to junk last week in the wake of the announcement.<\/p>\n

Steinhoff, whose retail empire includes France\u2019s Conforama furniture chain and Poundland in the UK, is staring down the barrel of more than 9 billion euros ($10.7 billion) of long-term debt. That includes a 2.5 billion euro term loan due in March 2018.<\/p>\n

Loan Negotiations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steinhoff has been seeking breathing room from its lenders amid a market rout. The company\u2019s billionaire chairman, Christo Wiese, has been trying to negotiate a standstill agreement on a margin loan of 1.5 billion euros. And the company has gained the support of some key lenders for extra time to repay more than 1 billion euros owed on a revolving credit facility, Bloomberg reported this week.<\/p>\n

The accounting revelations led to a plunge in the company\u2019s shares, erasing about three-quarters of their value. Steinhoff said last week that it was considering boosting liquidity by selling assets worth at least 1 billion euros.<\/p>\n

That may include unloading its holding in South African financial services company PSG Group Ltd., according to Jannie Mouton, chairman of PSG and a former Steinhoff director. Steinhoff holds almost a quarter of PSG\u2019s stock.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Steinhoff looking to sell its shares in PSG and KAP: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steinhoff International Holdings NV, the South African retail giant rocked by an accounting scandal, will restate its 2016 financial results after a probe uncovered fresh concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":215195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[11059],"class_list":["post-216581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-steinhoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216583,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216581\/revisions\/216583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}