Steinhoff International Holdings

Steinhoff International Holdings NV
legal form	Naamloze vennootschap
ISIN	NL0011375019
founding	July 1, 1964
Seat	Amsterdam , Netherlands
management	Louis du Preez
Number of employees	108,361
sales	11.992 billion euros
Branch	Retail , furniture industry
Website	www.steinhoffinternational.com
As of September 30, 2019

Steinhoff International Holdings is a listed global furniture company with headquarters in Amsterdam and operational headquarters in Sandton (Johannesburg / South Africa), whose roots lie in the German furniture industry . In 2016, around 112,000 people worked for the company.

history

In 1964, the German entrepreneur Bruno Steinhoff founded the original Steinhoff company in Westerstede ( Lower Saxony ) as Bruno Steinhoff furniture agency and sales . Steinhoff quickly specialized in importing furniture from what was then the Eastern Bloc . After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany, the company took over some of the former suppliers in the new federal states and built up production in Eastern Europe . In 1989 the group had 530 employees and in 1996 more than 5,000 employees. In 1998 the company was restructured and listed as Steinhoff International Holdings Ltd on the Johannesburg stock exchange. Through further acquisitions, especially in Africa , Australia and Great Britain , the group grew strongly in the 2000s; the east German furniture factories were closed.

After the acquisition of the French furniture retail chain Conforama from PPR in 2011, Steinhoff was the second largest furniture retailer in Europe after IKEA .

In 2015, Steinhoff bought the Pepkor Group from Christo Wiese for 5.7 billion US dollars in cash and shares, making him the largest shareholder in Steinhoff. The deal more than doubled Steinhoff's market capitalization.

In August 2015, Steinhoff International Holdings announced that it would move its initial listing to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with effect from December 7, 2015 . For this purpose, all shares in the South African Steinhoff International Holdings Limited should be exchanged for shares in the Dutch holding company Steinhoff International Holdings NV, based in Amsterdam , which should continue to be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and as a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange . The management should remain in South Africa . A few days before the Frankfurt IPO, tax investigators from the Oldenburg public prosecutor's office raided Steinhoff's European subsidiary. The first rate in Frankfurt was determined at 5.00 euros. On March 4, 2016, Deutsche Börse decided to include Steinhoff in the MDAX from March 21, 2016 . On March 24, 2020, Steinhoff switched to the SDAX.

In March 2016, Steinhoff announced that they had agreed to take over the electrical appliance retailer Darty . Steinhoff wanted to forestall a merger between Darty and its competitor Fnac , but was outbid by Fnac in a bidding contest. At the same time, Steinhoff canceled a previously planned takeover of the Home Retail Group .

In June 2016 it became known that Steinhoff wanted to take over the British discount retailer Poundland , which sells all items in its shops for one pound each . In August 2016 Steinhoff announced that it also wanted to buy Mattress Firm , the largest US mattress retailer, for 3.4 billion euros.

Crisis from 2017

On December 5, 2017, irregularities in Steinhoff's balance sheet were admitted, whereupon CEO Markus Jooste promised to give a presentation that evening. Instead, he emailed a number of colleagues admitting that he had "made some big mistakes and caused financial losses to many innocent people." He must “move on”. Then he was gone. The auditing company Deloitte had previously refused to give the group the certificate . The Steinhoff share lost 60 percent of its price the following day and temporarily fell to a price of 35 cents in the same week. After Jooste's resignation, the company was temporarily managed by major shareholder and supervisory board chairman Christo Wiese, who resigned from all offices on December 14, 2017 with immediate effect. Heather Sonn, who sits as an independent member of the Supervisory Board, took over these duties on a temporary basis. On December 19, 2017, Danie van der Merwe was appointed CEO. By December 21, 2017, the company's share had lost over 90 percent of its value within 14 days. The market capitalization was only 17.15 billion rand (1.144 billion euros at the price on January 17, 2018).

At the beginning of 2018, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority and the Oldenburg Public Prosecutor's Office initiated investigation proceedings independently of each other.

In April 2018 it was announced that the Austrian furniture store chain XXXLutz is taking over the discounter Poco for 266.25 million euros. Since 2008, Poco has been owned 50% by Steinhoff International Holdings and 50% by the XXXLutz Group.

At the beginning of June 2018, the subsidiary Kika / Leiner canceled credit insurance and, according to KSV , there was a risk of bankruptcy with the obligation to pay out vacation pay at the end of June 2018. After XXXLutz was rumored to be interested in a takeover, it was announced on June 14, 2018 that Signa Holding of the Tyrolean real estate investor René Benko would buy Kika / Leiner from Steinhoff. Kika / Leiner employs around 5000 people. The takeover was finalized on June 22nd after a short delay. With the sale, CFO Philip Diepernik, appointed in January 2018, tried to avert the threat of bankruptcy.

In August 2018, it was announced that Steinhoff is moving Steinhoff Europa AG (SEAG) and Finance Holding from Brunn am Gebirge ( Lower Austria ) and moving to Cheltenham (Great Britain).

For 2017 Steinhoff reported an operating loss of 3.7 billion euros and for 2018 an operating loss of 1.2 billion euros.

structure

The Steinhoff Group includes some large furniture manufacturers and retailers:

• Steinhoff Europe
  • Abra Meble (furniture retailer in Poland)
  • Bensons for Beds (UK bedding stores)
  • Conforama (furniture trade in France and Southern Europe)
  • Harveys ( UK furniture retailer )
  • LIPO furnishing markets (furniture trade in Switzerland, central warehouse in Derendingen operated by Global Warehouse AG)
  • Pepkor Europe (retail in Central Eastern Europe and the British Isles, Pepco and Poundland)
  • Quattro mobili (furniture trade in Hungary )
  • Steinhoff UK (furniture production in Great Britain)
• Steinhoff Africa
  • JD Group (retail companies in southern Africa)
  • KAP Industrial (South African production and logistics companies, share 26% as of 05/2018)
  • IEP (investment holding, share 23% as of 05/2018)
  • Pepkor - holding company with various retail brands
  • Unitrans Motors (automobile sales, car rental)
• Steinhoff Asia Pacific (several furniture dealers in Australia and New Zealand )
  • Freedom
  • Snooze
  • BayLeatherRepublic
• was sold in 2018
  • Poco (discount furniture retailer in Germany)
  • Puris Bad GmbH (bathroom furniture manufacturer in Brilon )
  • Impuls Küchen GmbH (kitchen furniture manufacturer in Brilon)
  • Steinpol Central Services (furniture production in Poland)
  • kika and Leiner (furniture trade in Austria and Central / Eastern Europe, the Signa Holding of René Benko signed in June 2018 a contract for Kika / Leiner )
  • Extreme Digital Zrt. (Electrical retailer from Budapest, Hungary)

See also

• List of the largest companies in Africa

Web links

Commons : Steinhoff International Holdings  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Steinhoff International Holdings

Footnotes

1. ^ History ( Memento from November 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Management Board , accessed March 19, 2019
3. ↑ Audited Results for the Year ended September 30, 2019. (PDF; 2.0 MB) p. 29 , accessed on August 3, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Audited Results for the Year ended September 30, 2019 (PDF; 2.0 MB) p. 113 , accessed on August 3, 2020 .  
5. ↑ ^{a b c} The Steinhoff files in Capital.de, April 20, 2018, accessed on March 5, 2020.
6. ^ Nordwest-Zeitung: Balance: Furniture giant Steinhoff continues to grow. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
7. ↑ http://www.steinhoffinternational.com/downloads/2015/blocker/STEINHOFF%20PROSPECTUS%207%20Aug%202015.pdf
8. ↑ handelsblatt.com
9. ^ Steinhoff International: IPO without a boss. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
10. ↑ "Steinhoff remains a billion- dollar grave ." In ARD.de, June 19, 2019, accessed on March 7, 2020.
11. ↑ ProSieben before Easter in the DAX and Steinhoff in the MDAX. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
12. ↑ finanzen net GmbH: Steinhoff share: reassignment to the SDAX in March - 02/28/2020 - BÖRSE ONLINE. Retrieved July 8, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Bidders for electronics dealer Darty rock themselves up. Retrieved August 12, 2016 . 
14. ↑ Steinhoff in Great Britain with victory and defeat in the takeover business. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
15. ↑ ROUNDUP: Steinhoff acquires 23 percent of Poundland and is considering takeover offer June 15, 2016 | Message | finanzen.net. Retrieved August 12, 2016 . 
16. ↑ Steinhoff buys Mattress Firm: Poco mother lies down on US mattresses. In: handelsblatt.com. Retrieved August 12, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Andreas Mehring: PwC confirms fraud involving billions at Steinhoff. In: Finance-Magazin.de, March 18, 2019 (accessed March 18, 2019).
18. ↑ Steinhoff share falls dramatically: CEO resigns - liquidity measures decided. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
19. ↑ Furniture company from Westerstede: Major shareholder leaves - Steinhoff crisis comes to a head. In: Nordwest-Zeitung , December 15, 2017. Accessed December 15, 2017.
20. ^ Wirtschaftswoche: Steinhoff: The main shareholder withdraws from the top of the group. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
21. ^ Steinhoff Changes To The Supervisory Board. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
22. ↑ Van der Merwe is appointed CEO of Steinhoff | EUWID wood and wood-based materials. Retrieved March 19, 2019 . 
23. ↑ Steinhoff on brink of dropping off JSE's top 100 company list. In: Fin24.com , December 21, 2017.
24. ↑ Press report Tagesschau from February 15, 2018
25. ↑ Furniture giant ousts Ikea from the top welt.de, April 26, 2018, accessed June 15, 2018.
26. ↑ Rene Benkos Signa buys kika / Leiner orf.at, June 14, 2018, accessed June 15, 2018.
27. ↑ Andreas Mehring: PwC confirms fraud involving billions at Steinhoff. In: Finance-Magazin.de, March 18, 2019 (accessed March 18, 2019).
28. ↑ orf.at: Steinhoff moves European headquarters from Austria . Article dated August 10, 2018, accessed August 11, 2018.
29. ↑ Andreas Deutsch: Steinhoff: Now all dams are breaking. Retrieved July 11, 2019 . 
30. ↑ STEINHOFF-ANNUAL-REPORT-2018. In: steinhoffinternational.com. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .  Page 53