South African Steinhoff raises $ 332 million from the sale of its stake in KAP Industrial

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African troubled retailer Steinhoff said on Wednesday it raised 4.8 billion rand (332 million USD) from the sale of its 26 percent stake in KAP Industrial (KAPJ.J) to repay its debt and consolidate its finances by sending its shares up.

Steinhoff admitted "accounting irregularities" in December 2017, shocking investors who had supported his reinvention of a small South African company to a multinational retailer at the vanguard of the retail sector. discounted furniture in Europe.

This wiped out about 85% of its market value and plunged the company into a liquidity crisis.

Steinhoff said in a statement that it sold 694 million KAP shares at 6.85 rand a share, a 9.4% discount on Tuesday's closing price. The demand book was oversubscribed, he added.

Steinhoff said on Tuesday that the offering would only be available to institutional investors and that the company would no longer hold a stake in KAP.

Steinhoff's shares jumped in the first transactions on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and rose more than 6% at 7:25 am GMT.

The shares of KAP, a diversified industrial group selling everything from chemicals to automotive components to mattresses, dropped by more than 7%.

An investigation by PwC revealed that Steinhoff had recorded fictitious or irregular transactions totaling € 6.5 billion ($ 7.3 billion) over a period covering fiscal years 2009 and 2017.

Steinhoff sold its stake in KAP in March 2018 after placing 450 million shares, or 17%, also via an accelerated bookbuild to fill a liquidity gap.

Steinhoff also raised funds through the sale of stakes in South African investment firm PSG Group, the French online retailer Showroomprive.com, and a property in Austria.