Steinhoff has reached a settlement agreement with Mauritius-based company Trevo Capital, four years after the accounting scandal that rocked the retailer and tanked its share price.
Trevo is one of more than 90 claimants who said they suffered losses after Steinhoff’s share price crash in 2017. In a statement, Steinhoff said it will grant Trevo call options to purchase 120 million Pepkor shares at an exercise price of R24.92 per share. The shares are exercisable in three years.
The investment company will, in turn, support Steinhoff’s global settlement and withdraw all litigation against Steinhoff once suspensive conditions are met.
The agreement comes after Trevo instituted a claim of more than R2 billion against Steinhoff, saying it had lost that amount because of Steinhoff’s "alleged intentional, alternatively, negligent misstatements in its 2015 annual financial statements". In July, the Western Cape High Court found that Steinhoff had breached the Companies Act, after it provided financial assistance to one of its entities as part of its restructuring process in 2019.
"The settlement of Trevo’s alleged claims will not impact the recoveries of other scheme creditors under the S155 proposal other than the financial creditors. Financial creditor approval of the proposed terms is a suspensive condition to the Trevo settlement and will be sought as soon as possible," said Steinhoff.
The settlement coincided with another one that Steinhoff inked with the former owners of footwear retail chain, Tekkie Town. According to that agreement, Steinhoff will pay the former Tekkie Town owners R500 million in aggregate, and give them 29.5 million Pepkor shares, which will be locked-up for 180 calendar days after the transfer.
"Settlement with Trevo would be another step towards conclusion of implementation of the Steinhoff global settlement," said Steinhoff’s CEO and management board member Louis du Preez.
