More changes to Steinhoff management

Steinhoff International has announced more changes to its Management Board.

Ben la Grange has stepped down as Chief Financial Officer and as a member of the Management Board.

The company released a statement saying la Grange will now "focus on the preservation and procurement of liquidity in the Group".

The changes follow the company's admission to possible "accounting irregularities" which has seen its share prices plummet to below the R10-mark.

Former CEO Markus Jooste resigned shortly after the company made the announcement.

New Appointments

Steinhoff has now appointed Philip Dieperink as the new acting CFO.

This while Johan Geldenhuys will join the executive committee as the head of treasury.

The international retailer also plans to make further appointments to help stabilise the situation.

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"It is further intended that an external independent debt restructuring expert (a Chief Restructuring Officer) will be contracted to assist with these matters and a process to identify such person is underway," reads the statement by Steinhoff.

In December, the company appointed Danie van der Merwe as acting CEO, nominated Alexandre Nodale as Deputy CEO and Louis Du Preez as Commercial Director.

'The Road Ahead'

Steinhoff says the Supervisory and-Management Boards will focus on stabilising the business in the short term.

It lists three "priorities" that the boards will focus on in the new year.

1. Preserving and procuring liquidity, to stabilise the relevant underlying businesses and to ensure that the intrinsic value of assets can be protected;
   
2. Completing the 2017 (and restated prior years) audited consolidated financial statements as soon as possible; and
   
3. Finalising the independent forensic investigation into accounting irregularities as a matter of urgency.
   

Interaction with banking and financing partners are meanwhile ongoing.