UPDATE 1-Steinhoff's 2017 results may face further delay
(Recasts with update on timing)
JOHANNESBURG, May 7 (Reuters) - Steinhoff is still
aiming to publish its delayed 2017 earnings on Tuesday, but left
the door open to a further postponement if needed.
The results are set to reveal the impact of a 6.4 billion
euro ($7.15 billion) accounting fraud - South Africa's biggest
corporate scandal - on Steinhoff's finances. They have been
delayed several times because of the lengthy process involved in
sorting out the retailer's accounts.
"The company still plans to publish its audited 2017
financial statements later tonight," Steinhoff said in a
statement.
"Should the company find that it is not achievable to
release these results a further announcement will be made later
tonight."
Steinhoff first delayed the results in December 2017, after
revealing a hole in its accounts that shocked investors who had
backed its transformation from a small South African company to
a multinational retailer.
An investigation by auditor PwC released in March revealed
some of the scale of the fraud, but shareholders still want more
information and an indication of how much Steinhoff's remaining
assets are worth.
Eight people, including former Steinhoff executives, were
named in the PwC investigation, which found a complex scheme
where intercompany transactions worth 6.4 billion euros were
fraudulently recorded as external income to prop up profits and
hide costs in underperforming subsidiaries.[nL8N21258L]
Shares in Johannesburg-listed Steinhoff opened more than 8
percent higher on Tuesday. They closed about 1 percent up.
"Most of the bad news has already been priced in. They've
already done most of the impairments," said BP Bernstein equity
trader Vasili Girasis.
"The market is kind of in a 'buy the bad news' type of
scenario because most of it is now out and hoping that from here
onwards things will be a lot more stable and clearer."
The company has already written down the value of its assets
by more than $12 billion after PwC provided its initial findings
in June last year.
The 2017 audited and the 2016 restated results will feature
a further impairment of 1.8 billion euros of the group's
goodwill and intangible assets as at September 30, 2017, with
the value now expected to be 7.2 billion euros, the retailer
said on April 30. [nL5N22C8EM]
The reduction followed a reassessment of the value of the
goodwill and intangible assets of Mattress Firm, a U.S. bedding
retailer for which Steinhoff paid a 115 percent premium to
acquire the company in a $4.8 billion deal in 2016.
Mattress Firm filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection in
October 2018 and exited the process less than two months later.
[nL4N1XX2O3] [nL8N1WL3C4]
The retailer has delayed releasing results several times as
it waited for the findings of the PwC investigation and audit
process of its external auditor Deloitte.
The 2018 results are now due on June 18.
($1 = 0.8954 euros)
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Additional reporting by Emma
Rumney;Editing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng and Jane Merriman)
((nqobile.dludla@thomsonreuters.com; +27117753126; Reuters
Messaging: nqobile.dludla.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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