JOHANNESBURG, Dec 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Steinhoff International Holdings share price fell almost 11 per cent in early morning trade to R1.59 after revealing that it now expects to publish its group audited financial statements for 2017 and 2018 by mid-April 2019, as a forensic investigation by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been delayed, the retailer said on Thursday.
The probe by PwC into the company’s affairs is now expected to be completed by the end of February 2019, and the final investigation report will be available to the company shortly thereafter, Steinhoff said.
Steinhoff, which has more than 40 retail brands that include France’s Conforama and British chain Poundland, is trying to emerge from a crisis after admitting “accounting irregularities” in December, wiping about 85 percent off its market value and triggering a liquidity crisis.
READ: <a href="http://cnbc.africa/insights/steinhoff/2018/06/28/steinhoff-rise-fall/">Inside the Steinhoff saga, one of the biggest cases of corporate fraud in South African business history</a>
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This prompted the company to drop a Jan. 31, 2018 deadline for publishing its audited 2017 consolidated financial statements.
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“Unfortunately, despite significant efforts being exerted by all parties, it is now clear that the timeline for completing the group consolidated financial reporting and audit process has shifted and it will not be possible for all the work required to be finalised within the original timeframe,” the company said in a statement.
The 2017 and 2018 financial statements of the company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Steinhoff Investment Holdings Ltd, will be released shortly after the group’s results.
The retailer said once the forensic report findings and the final accounting treatments are resolved by the group, the statutory auditors need to complete the outstanding audit processes for all of the years involved in the build-up to these financial statements. (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)

Steinhoff share price plunges as PwC forensic report, audited results delayed

*Update, the story written by Reuters was inaccurate. According to Christo Wiese, speaking on 702, the transaction was not a sale of shares but a derivative transaction aimed at stabilising his balance sheet.  Shoprite issued the following statement to clarify
Rand Merchant Bank (a division of FirstRand Bank Limited) (“RMB”) and Absa Bank Limited (acting through its Corporate and Investment Banking division) (“Absa”) (collectively the “Sellers”) announce the launch of an accelerated bookbuild offer of up to 17,017,500 Shoprite Holdings Limited (“Shoprite”) ordinary shares (the “Placement Shares”) pursuant to a derivative transaction entered into with Titan Premier Investments Proprietary Limited (“Titan”) (the “Placement”).
Titan and its subsidiaries currently hold c.79 million Shoprite ordinary shares, representing c.14% of the total issued ordinary shares of Shoprite. Titan has entered into a collar transaction with the Sellers on c.18.9m of Shoprite shares (the “Collar Transaction”). This transaction is part of Titan’s ongoing investment and balance sheet management. Following the Collar Transaction, Titan will have achieved the optimum composition of its balance sheet and no further transactions in relation to Shoprite are contemplated.
Titan believes that it is prudent to manage portfolio risk through this hedging transaction given Shoprite’s concentrated position in its investment portfolio. The Collar Transaction enables Titan to protect a portion of its Shoprite exposure. Titan continues to believe in the long-term value of Shoprite and will remain a strategic investor in the company.
The Placement Shares represent 2.9% of the total issued ordinary shares of Shoprite. The Placement is being made to qualifying institutional investors only and is not an offer to the public in any jurisdiction. The book for the Placement is open with immediate effect and is expected to close as soon as possible. Pricing and allocations will be announced as soon as practicable following the closing of the book.
RMB, Absa and Morgan Stanley &amp; Co. International plc are acting as joint bookrunners (the “Joint Bookrunners”) for the Placement.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) &#8211; South African tycoon Christo Wiese sold part of his stake in grocer Shoprite (SHPJ.J) on Wednesday, raising 3.6 billion rand ($264 million) and shoring up his finances, which were dented by his exposure to scandal-hit Steinhoff.
Shoprite&#8217;s share price dropped almost 6% to R211,55 on Wednesday. 
READ: <a href="http://cnbc.africa/insights/steinhoff/2017/12/21/shoprtie-share-sale/">Billionaire Christo Wiese sells over $80mln in Shoprite shares</a>
Nearly $15 billion has been wiped off Steinhoff (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNHJ.J">SNHJ.J</a>) (<a href="https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=SNHG.DE">SNHG.DE</a>) shares over the last six months after the owner of Mattress Firm and Conforama revealed holes in its accounts.
Wiese was particularly hard hit by the fall as the largest shareholder in Steinhoff, with a stake of about 20 percent.
Wiese’s company Titan sold 17 million shares, or a 2.9 percent stake, at 210 rand each in Shoprite, a 130 billion rand company he transformed from just six outlets in the 1970s to hundreds across Africa.
“This transaction is part of Titan’s ongoing investment and balance sheet management,” Morgan Stanley said in a statement. “Titan continues to believe in the long-term value of Shoprite and will remain a strategic investor in the company.”
The sale, which was via a so-called accelerated bookbuild, reduces Wiese’s stake in Shoprite to about 11 percent. He stake was as big as 17 percent in early December.
Shares in Shoprite fell as much as 9 percent before recouping some of the losses to trade 5.3 percent lower at 212.99 rand as of 0844 GMT.
RMB and Absa also helped arrange deal.

Africa’s largest retailer Shoprite’s share price knocked on Christo Wiese’s derivative transaction

PARIS, Jan 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Shares in Carrefour rose on Friday after Europe’s largest supermarket retailer agreed to buy 17 percent of online fashion retailer Showroomprive.com for 79 million euros ($95 million), from Steinhoff-owned furniture chain Conforama.
Carrefour shares were up 0.3 percent in early session trading, outperforming a flat performance on the broader European retail sector.
Alexandre Bompard, who took over last July as CEO of Carrefour &#8211; the world’s largest retailer after Walmart -will unveil his strategy for the group on Jan 23.
Investors want Bompard to boost the performance of the group’s France-based hypermarkets, a goal that has eluded several predecessors amid competition online and price discounting from rivals such as unlisted Leclerc. They also want him to do more in terms of digital and online businesses.
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$1 = 0.8292 euros Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta
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<div class="StandardArticleBody_trustBadgeContainer_1gqgJ">Our Standards:<a href="http://thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/trust-principles.html">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.</a></div>

Steinhoff begins fire sale

JOHANNESBURG/FRANKFURT (Reuters) &#8211; Steinhoff’s finance chief stepped down from the role on Thursday to focus on helping the South African retailer plug a 2.4 billion euro ($2.9 billion) hole in its finances after an accounting scandal.
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The owner of more than 40 multinational retail brands including Conforama, Mattress Firm and Poundland, revealed the <a href="http://cnbc.africa/category/insights/steinhoff/">“accounting irregularity” last month</a> along with the immediate departure of its <a href="http://cnbc.africa/category/insights/steinhoff/">chief executive</a>. Its chairman briefly took the reins then also stepped down.
“While the Group has achieved some degree of stabilisation in its operating businesses, significant near-term liquidity is still required in certain of the business units,” Steinhoff said on Thursday.
<div class="DPSlot_container_2dHIN DPSlot_inline_1oeo6">Chief financial officer Ben la Grange, whom the company has cleared of any wrongdoing, will leave his position and Philip Dieperink, the finance chief of Steinhoff’s UK business, will become acting CFO.</div>
The company said la Grange would concentrate on “the preservation and procurement of liquidity in the group” and finalising its 2017 accounts.
<div class="DPSlot_container_2dHIN DPSlot_inline_1oeo6 in-article-tag">Turnaround specialist AlixPartners was called in last month to help shore up finances as lenders have started restricting access to credit lines and insurers are cancelling or reducing credit insurance.</div>

Steinhoff, which has debts of around 10.7 billion euros, said it planned to hire a debt restructuring expert in the role of chief restructuring officer.
Earlier this week, Steinhoff said it would have to restate its 2015 accounts and maybe even earlier figures, having already warned on its 2016 numbers.
<h3>SHARES REBOUND</h3>
More than $10 billion has been wiped off Steinhoff’s market value following the disclosure of the scandal that has claimed the heads of CEO Markus Jooste and chairman Christo Wiese. They were key figures who transformed Steinhoff from a modest furniture distributor to a global household goods giant.
Shares in Steinhoff, still down about 80 percent from a month ago, rebounded more than 25 percent on Thursday to 8.60 rand.
This week UK subsidiary Poundland reported strong Christmas trading and European unit, Pepkor Europe, which houses Poundland and Dealz, said it had replaced planned investment from its parent in full with a new independent 180 million pound loan.
Meanwhile, the company’s Asia Pacific subsidiary has hired lawyers and a restructuring specialist to advise on the “significant uncertainty” facing its parent.
Steinhoff has so far raised around $400 million from the sale of a portion of its stake in South African investment heavyweight PSG Group. It is also due to receive around $1.2 billion in debt repayment from its subsidiary, Steinhoff Africa Retail.
The company, which moved its primary share listing from Johannesburg to Frankfurt two years ago, has been under investigation for suspected accounting fraud in Germany since 2015. Four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, prosecutors have said.
Steinhoff has previously said that the investigation relates to whether revenues were booked properly and whether taxable profits were correctly declared.
($1 = 0.8284 euros)
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Editing by Georgina Prodhan and Elaine Hardcastle
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Steinhoff shares rebound as CFO moves to new position

By Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Arno Schuetze
JOHANNESBURG/ FRANKFURT, Dec 12 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s Steinhoff is considering selling stakes worth a combined $1.4 billion in local companies PSG Group and KAP Industrial to help plug a liquidity gap at the retailer, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Steinhoff , the owner of more than 40 retail brands including Conforama, Mattress Firm and Poundland, is seeking to shore up its finances after more than $14 billion was wiped off its market value last week following its disclosure of accounting irregularities and its chief executive&#8217;s exit.
Steinhoff plans to raise around 2 billion euros ($2 billion) from the sale of non-core assets and the proceeds of debt repayments from African unit Steinhoff Africa Retail.
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&#8220;It cannot get any more non-core than their stake in PSG,&#8221; a source in Johannesburg said. &#8220;It is on the table and so is the stake in KAP.&#8221;
The likely sale of the stakes was corroborated by a second source based in Frankfurt, who said they were first on the list of possible divestitures to plug funding holes.
Steinhoff owns about 25 percent of PSG, a 60 billion rand ($4.40 billion) investment holding company, and 39 percent of diversified industrial group KAP Industrial, which is worth around 6.1 billion rand at current market prices.
Steinhoff, KAP Industrial and PSG Group declined to comment.
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The Johannesburg source, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, also said the stakes would most likely be sold in chunks via a so-called accelerated book build to institutional investors.
Steinhoff said on Sunday it had called in turnaround specialist AlixPartners to help shore up its liquidity. It also hired U.S investment bank Moles &amp; Co to help it prepare for a delayed meeting with lenders in London next week.
MODEST RECOVERY
Once a must-have for investors who backed its reinvention from small South African furniture outfit into an empire with brands spanning some 30 countries, Steinhoff&#8217;s shares dropped more than 80 percent before a modest recovery this week.
By 1011 GMT, the stock was up 36 percent in Johannesburg and Frankfurt, extending gains for a second straight day and recouping just over $2 billion from last week&#8217;s crash.
Separately, South Africa&#8217;s trade and industry department said it would investigate whether Steinhoff breached domestic company laws, joining the local bourse operator and German financial watchdog Bafin in examining its actions.
Steinhoff has been under investigation for suspected accounting irregularities by the state prosecutor in Oldenburg, Germany since 2015 and four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, prosecutors said.
Steinhoff has previously said this related to whether revenues were booked properly, and whether taxable profit was correctly declared ($1 = 13.6269 rand) ($1 = 0.8495 euros) (Additional reporting by TJ Strydom and Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg; Editing by James Macharia and Alexander Smith)

Conforama

Steinhoff share price plunges as PwC forensic report, audited results delayed

Africa’s largest retailer Shoprite’s share price knocked on Christo Wiese’s derivative transaction

Steinhoff begins fire sale

Steinhoff shares rebound as CFO moves to new position

Retail giant Steinhoff considers PSG, KAP stake sales to lift liquidity -sources

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Conforama

Steinhoff share price plunges as PwC forensic report, audited results delayed

Africa’s largest retailer Shoprite’s share price knocked on Christo Wiese’s derivative transaction

Steinhoff begins fire sale

Steinhoff shares rebound as CFO moves to new position

Retail giant Steinhoff considers PSG, KAP stake sales to lift liquidity -sources

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