Seven months after the widespread accounting irregularities came to light, Steinhoff issued its half-year report for the six months ended 31 March 2018. The half-year results, also containing the unaudited restated half-year condensed financial statement for the six months ended 31 March 2017, provide investors with some new information on the state of affairs at Steinhoff.

Despite the information provided, VEB is of the opinion that investors are kept in the dark where it comes to information necessary to evaluate their investments and to make informed investment decisions. Therefore VEB, as a representative of the investment community at large, addressed several issues in its letter sent to Steinhoff last Friday, 6 July 2018. The letter to Steinhoff can be found here.

The letter’s core theme is capable of being captured through its questioning: 

• the involvement of Steinhoff’s statutory auditor in the process of preparing the half-year results (for example in the selected input variables for the goodwill impairment test);
• the current status of the PWC investigation and its impact on the management board, the supervisory board and other personnel;
• the details with regard to the items amounting to € 6,1Bn of goodwill impaired;
• the strategic, operational and financial actions pursued by Steinhoff at this moment as well as planned for the short term.