DURBAN – Steinhoff International on Monday officially appointed Mazars Netherlands as its new external auditor following an extraordinary general meeting held in Amsterdam.
Mazars was the only item on the agenda with 99.95percent of the shareholders backing the appointment.
“The Dutch Mazars audit team will work closely with their colleagues in the UK, South Africa and France and in other jurisdictions where possible,” Steinhoff said.
Steinhoff initially informed its shareholders in August that Mazars accepted an offer to replace Deloitte
as the auditors during the group’s annual general meeting held in Amsterdam.
Deloitte, the outgoing auditors, were thrust into the spotlight after they refused to sign off the embattled retailer’s financial results before the December 2017 accounting scandal that shocked the markets and led to a more than 90percent decline in the share price and wiping off more than R200billion in market capitalisation.
The group’s audit and risk committee recommended Mazars as they had no material formal relationship with the troubled retailer company.
In support of Mazars as external auditors, the audit and risk committee considered Mazars to have the appropriate expertise and resources available to enable them to provide the audit services required.
Steinhoff had initially put up a tender and invited Dutch firms that were allowed to perform statutory audits of annual accounts of local companies whose securities were admitted to trading on a regulated market.
The group's financial statements are expected to be released next month.
Steinhoff shares rose 1.04percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R0.97.