South Africa

Steinhoff International’s shares jolted downwards again today as it met its banks in London, seeking their support to get through the difficulties caused by apparent false accounting.

Moody’s published a cautious note on Tuesday in response to “business-friendly candidate” Cyril Ramaphosa’s slim victory in South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) presidential elections on Monday. But the agency acknowledged that, if implemented, Ramaphosa’s reform priorities could “begin to address the weaknesses flagged” when the agency put South Africa on review for downgrade.

The travails of Steinhoff International, the embattled South African retail holding company, deepened today as Christo Wiese, the entrepreneur who has built up the business, resigned as chairman.

South Africa’s FirstRand Bank signed a syndicated loan with 21 banks on Thursday for $700m, $200m higher than its launch amount, despite South Africa’s recent rating downgrade, which also led to a downgrade for FirstRand.

A group of senior managers at Dis-Chem Pharmacies, the South African pharmacy chain, have completed the first equity block trade in the stock since its R4.4bn ($304m) Johannesburg IPO in November 2016. The sale of a 3.7% stake was slightly increased.

Equity investors initially responded positively this week to Steinhoff International’s fresh attempts to shore up its operations, helping the dual-listed retail company's share price rebound, before it dropped again on Thursday amid talk of possible legal action and calls for the board to resign.

South Africa’s distressed Steinhoff has moved its meeting with lenders from Monday to next Tuesday, following its revelation on accounting irregularities last week.

Steinhoff International’s revelation of accounting irregularities has smashed the reputation of a company that had been widely admired as a daring and astute user of capital markets. Sam Kerr, Virginia Furness, Aidan Gregory, Silas Brown and Bianca Boorer examine how the retailer's troubles have rocked confidence among bond, equity and loan investors and even shaken appetite for South African risk.

Investors may be quick to pass off Steinhoff’s collapse as an idiosyncratic corporate event, but the fall of one of South Africa’s biggest companies is a severe blow to a country struggling to cling on to its image.

South African property investment company Growthpoint postponed a euro denominated five year note on Wednesday suggesting that even high quality credits from the country will struggle to do deals as investors turn increasingly negative on it.

Equity investors have turned on what was once a darling retail stock in a dramatic two day sell-off which has rocked the company and South Africa to its core.

The shocking fall from grace this week of Steinhoff International, the South African retail group, is causing pain for many in the equity-linked debt market, where it has issued €2.7bn of bonds. The potentially unsound nature of its earnings caused an 80% collapse in its share price this week, and has triggered a fast transfer of its convertibles into specialist hands.