Bed bugs

6 December 2017 By Carol Ryan

The furniture retailer shed more than half its market value after a probe was launched into accounting irregularities and its CEO stepped down. Investors who had ignored red flags such as a 2015 investigation and oddly low tax rates are paying the price of being too trusting.

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Steinhoff stuffs its cash into the U.S. mattress

Context News

Steinhoff, Europe’s second-largest furniture retailer by sales, said on Dec. 5 that it had appointed auditor PwC to investigate accounting irregularities at the company and delayed the release of its full-year results. The group added that it would also determine whether previous years’ financial statements needed to be restated.

Chief Executive Markus Jooste resigned with immediate effect, the company said. Steinhoff Chairman Christo Wiese will become executive chairman on an interim basis.

Shares of Steinhoff International, which moved its primary listing from Johannesburg to Frankfurt in 2015, were down 58 percent at 1.2570 euros as of 0920 on Dec. 6.

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