Full PwC Steinhoff report wanted

The PIC informed Parliament that it was taking legal action to force Steinhoff International to release the full report conducted by PwC. Picture: SUPPLIED
DURBAN – The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) yesterday informed Parliament that it was taking legal action to force Steinhoff International to release the full report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), withheld by the troubled retailer on the grounds of confidentiality.

The PIC board and its senior executives briefed the Standing Committee on Finance on steps taken to recover as much as R20billion lost when the share price collapsed by more than 95percent as a result of accounting irregularities in December 2017.

The PIC invests on behalf of the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) and manages about R2.1trillion in assets. Steinhoff only released a 10-page report in March, but the full forensic report is estimated to be thousands of pages.

It is believed that Steinhoff is refusing to hand over the report on the basis that this could compromise civil and criminal proceedings against implicated persons, including its former chief executive, Markus Jooste.

The PIC’s head of legal services, Lindiwe Dlamini, said in Parliament that court papers would be filed soon in a bid to get Steinhoff to hand over the report of the investigation.

Source: iol.co.za