Christo Wiese-linked retailer Steinhoff says investors will wait until 2023 to receive $1.62-billion settlement

Steinhoff International Holdings, a South African-based global retail holding linked to South African billionaire retail mogul Christo Wiese, has revealed that shareholders who lost funds when the company’s share price fell in 2017 will most likely have to wait until next year to receive their settlement payouts.

This comes three months after the retailer was granted permission by a high court in South Africa to settle more than $8 billion in combined claims stemming from the retailer’s 2017 accounting scandal, which resulted in the resignations of Markus Jooste and Wiese.

As part of the settlement offer, Steinhoff agreed to pay investors €1.43 billion ($1.62 billion) to put the South African holding in a position to successfully focus on debt reduction, while its management, led by CEO Louis du Preez, increases efforts to recover from the fraud crisis.

According to News24, the Stichting Steinhoff Recovery Foundation, an independent body established to assess settlement claims, announced that the €1.43 billion ($1.62 billion) in payouts would begin in early 2023.

So far, the foundation has received over 43,000 claims and is in the process of verifying claims totaling €3.2 billion ($3.4 billion). This amount exceeds the €1.43 billion ($1.51 billion) set aside by Steinhoff for the settlement.

The recent delay in the contingent payout raises concerns among investors and market participants, as Wiese, the company’s largest shareholder in 2017, disclosed earlier this year that the settlement plan had already been approved in the Netherlands, where Steinhoff is registered, and that some parties who had initially opposed the deal had agreed to settle.

Steinhoff has been fighting for survival for more than four years, ever since a Deloitte audit report revealed an accounting fraud that resulted in a drop in the company’s share price and valuation, prompting police and regulatory investigations in Europe and South Africa.

Following the discovery of inflated profits and asset values, the company was forced to sell a variety of international retail assets to raise funds. It also announced plans earlier this year to sell a stake in its pan-European subsidiary, Pepco Group, as part of a strategic move to reduce its €9.83-billion ($11 billion) debt burden.

Pepco Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom, is a rapidly expanding, multi-format, pan-European discount variety retailer. It opened 146 new stores in the first quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, while revenues rose by 12 percent year-on-year due to store expansion across all operating territories and brands.

According to Steinhoff CFO,Theodore de Klerk, the South African-based international retail group owns just under 80 percent of Pepco’s shares, giving it a majority stake in the pan-European discount retailer.