Steinhoff shares plunge by another 10%

Cape Town - Shares in retailer Steinhoff sank to under R3.00 in afternoon trade on Wednesday, a fall of over 10% on the day. 

At 15:57 Steinhoff shares were trading at R3.02 on the JSE, after earlier falling to a low of R2.94. They opened at R3.30.

The share price decrease comes a day after Steinhoff announced that the true value of a real estate portfolio owned by one of its European subsidiaries may be R16bn (€1.1bn) less than previously calculated. 

The Stellenbosch-headquartered conglomerate said in a market announcement on Tuesday evening that commercial real estate advisory group CBRE had valued the real estate interests of its subsidiary Hemisphere International Properties at "approximately €1.1bn".

This is about half the company's previous estimate of €2.2bn.

The Hemisphere portfolio comprises around 140 properties - including stores, warehouses, offices, production sites and vacant land - across Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and Eastern Europe, said Steinhoff. 

Deep plunge

Shares in Steinhoff have plunged by over 90% since the abrupt resignation of its CEO Markus Jooste in early December 2017 amid an accounting scandal.

PwC is conducting a forensic investigation of the company to uncover what the accounting irregularities entailed, and how far back they stretched.   

Fin24 has compiled a list of 10 basic items now more expensive than a single Steinhoff share.

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