Steinhoff unit to sell 50% stake in POCO
Retailer Steinhoff said on Tuesday its subsidiary had agreed to sell a 50% stake and related properties in German furniture chain POCO to Andreas Seifert for €270.68m.
In February, a Dutch court ordered Steinhoff International to amend its 2016 accounts, handing victory to former business partner Seifert in a dispute over the ownership of the discount furniture store chain.
“Closing of the POCO sale shall bring the German litigation proceedings with the Seifert entities to an end,” the company said. The POCO business will retain debt of about €140m, with no recourse to the group, it said.
Steinhoff has shed 95% of its market value — about €13bn — since reporting accounting irregularities in December and has sold a string of assets to shore up its balance sheet.
The group’s former CEO Markus Jooste will appear before parliament on Wednesday for his role in the accounting scandal that brought the global retailer to the brink of collapse.
Jooste quit on the day the crisis erupted and has not been heard from publicly since. He has repeatedly refused to appear before legislators and is only appearing now on condition he is asked exclusively about flaws in the financial industry.
Jooste was not able to give evidence on Steinhoff directly as he was no longer an employee and might face prosecution in relation to the scandal, the former CEO’s lawyer, Callie Albertyn, said in a letter to the parliamentary finance committee.
Meanwhile, Steinhoff International is locked in a dispute with the South African police over their failure to charge Jooste for his role in the scandal.
While the owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the US said in January it had referred Jooste to the antigraft unit known as the Hawks, a high-ranking official at the department last week said the report was — and remained — devoid of crucial details.
The authority is still waiting for Steinhoff’s audit committee head, Steve Booysen, to supply the missing information, specialised commercial crimes head Alfred Khana told MPs.