By Alec Hogg
The Steinhoff information drip feed pumped out some awful news yesterday, heaping further embarrassment onto its already shame-faced board of directors.
In February, the scandal-wracked group put a value of €2.2bn on the 140 European properties held in its Netherlands-domiciled subsidiary Hemisphere. Yesterday an independent audit calculated those stores, warehouses, offices and production sites are actually only worth half as much.
A trading update from Steinhoff after the JSE had closed said London-based property valuators CBRE Limited put the fair value of Hemisphere’s portfolio at just €1.1bn. In effect, that wipes R16bn off the most recently stated assets owned by the group.
Punters should take note. At yesterday’s share price of R3.32 and with 4.31bn shares in issue, Steinhoff’s total market cap is R14.3bn. Presumably those who own the shares believed the recently published €2.2bn property number. There’s never just one cockroach in the kitchen.
