Steinhoff will be dissolved and its assets gradually sold off after a Dutch court yesterday approved its debt restructuring plan, heralding the end of the retailer that survived for six years after being revealed as the site of SA’s biggest fraud.

And German authorities have issued an arrest warrant for former CEO Markus Jooste, who is alleged to be the mastermind behind the multibillion-rand accounting fraud that shocked investors and politicians.

Steinhoff, which owns stakes in Pepco in Europe, Mattress Firm in the US and Pepkor at home, needs to repay €10.2bn of debt by 30 June and cannot do so because its assets are worth about €7bn.

Under the court-approved restructuring process, Steinhoff will avoid being forced into bankruptcy and its assets sold in a fire sale.

Business Day reports that it will be delisted from the JSE and Frankfurt Stock Exchange and transferred into a trust, where the company’s lenders, mainly hedge funds, will extend debt due in June to 2026 and slowly sell off assets.

Despite being figured in a Steinhoff-commissioned investigation report by PwC as the mastermind behind wide-scale fraud, Jooste has not been charged in SA.

Jooste was charged by Oldenburg prosecutors with the false representation of financial statements and encouraging managers to falsify accounts.

Documents released by the Oldenburg court explain how Jooste instructed managers on the amount of money each division had to make ahead of time in order to hide losses.

In a separate court case in Germany, a former manager, Dirk Schreiber, in June testified to knowingly creating sham transactions under the guidance of Jooste.

Full Business Day report