Steinhoff shares extend plunge amid plans to raise funds from sales

Steinhoff International Holdings NV extended Wednesday’s record plunge in the wake of an accounting scandal and said it planned to raise at lease 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) from an asset sale to boost liquidity.

The global retailer also confirmed that Chief Financial Officer Ben La Grange remains in his position as there’s no evidence he was involved in matters being investigated. Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste quit on Tuesday, while La Grange resigned from his other job as head of Steinhoff Africa Retail, which was spun off from the parent in September.

The stock fell 28% to 0.793 euros as of 10:02 a.m. in Frankfurt, extending the two-day drop to 73%. Steinhoff, which employs about 130,000 people worldwide, announced Wednesday that it was indefinitely delaying the release of its results, citing a criminal and tax investigation in Germany that dates back to 2015.

The retailer, which also has a base in Amsterdam and a primary listing in Frankfurt,saidin a statement Thursday that it had received expressions of interest in certain noncore assets. Steinhoff also said its African unit will formally commit to refinancing its long-term liabilities owed to the company, boosting liquidity further.

Steinhoff is considering the “validity and recoverability” of certain non-South African assets of the company which amount to about 6 billion euros, it said, without giving further detail.

- Bloomberg