Updated to include opening share price
Cape Town - Global retail giant Steinhoff International on Thursday announced that its financials for 2016 will also need to be restated.
This comes after at least six organisations announced they were investigating the company after its CEO quit and the company's share price plunged dramatically from R46.25 last Tuesday to just R9.80 at Wednesday's close.
On Thursday the shares opened trading sharply lower at R8.90 before pulling back to R9.26 (-5.51%) by 09:11 on the JSE.
The precipitous decline in the share price was caused by a late night announcement on 5 December that Steinhoff’s audited year-end results had been delayed, and that CEO Markus Jooste was resigning "with immediate effect" amid suspected accounting irregularities.It said in a note to shareholders on Thursday morning that it, on the advice of the independent committee of the Supervisory Board, has formed the view that issues concerning the validity and recoverability of certain Steinhoff Europe balance sheet assets under scrutiny in the 2017 audit work, are also relevant to the 2016 consolidated financial statements.
"Therefore... based on section 2:362 (6) of the Dutch Civil Code, the 2016 consolidated financial statements will need to be restated and can no longer be relied upon."
Steinhoff said it is taking all necessary steps to address the audit issues and will keep the market informed of any material developments.
It advised shareholders and other investors in Steinhoff to exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the group.
* Sign up to Fin24's top news in your inbox: SUBSCRIBE TO FIN24 NEWSLETTER