Steinhoff addresses ‘volatility’ in IPO market
Holding company Steinhoff has withdrawn its plans to list US-based Mattress Firm, in a move unlikely to surprise investors. A Business Day report says the listing had been planned to raise capital but was delayed in 2022 as global markets slumped in the wake of interest rate hikes.
The decision not to list the subsidiary means Steinhoff – whose debt exceeds assets – has even fewer ways to raise money to meet the €10bn debt obligations due in 2023.
Mattress Firm is the largest omni-channel mattress speciality retailer in the US with more than 2 300 stores across that country.
Steinhoff said ‘that in light of the ongoing volatility in the IPO market and following careful consideration with external advisers’ it withdrew its registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 9 January.
This filing document was confidentially submitted in September 2021 and publicly filed in January 2022. Steinhoff said it would reconsider listing Mattress Firm once markets were favourable, and that it was considering all options for the division.
Moneyweb reports that Mattress Firm has over 2 300 retail stores throughout the US, which Steinhoff says gives it the largest national retail footprint among mattress speciality retailers in that country.
As previously reported, the JSE this week levied two R7.5m fines against former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste and barred him from serving as a director for two decades, due to failures at the helm that prompted SA's biggest-ever accounting scandal.
Jooste has informed the JSE he does not agree with the decision and has challenged it.
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