Futuregrowth Asset Management, South Africa’s biggest specialist fixed-income money manager, said it didn’t tell Transnet SOC Ltd. to remove Chief Executive Officer Siyabonga Gama after the state-owned rail and ports operator said auditors couldn’t give its 2018 financial results a clean bill of health, Bloomberg News reported. “The Futuregrowth team has had continuing engagements as a lender to Transnet over many months,” Chief Investment Officer Andrew Canter said in an emailed statement late Monday.
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South African state-owned power firm Eskom has hired financial adviser Lazard to draft a plan to shore up its balance sheet as it struggles to emerge from a financial crisis, two banking sources told Reuters. Cash-strapped Eskom is critical to Africa’s most industrialised economy as it supplies more than 90 percent of its power and is one of its most indebted state firms, Reuters reported. President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a new board at Eskom early this year in one of his first interventions since becoming leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
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Standard Chartered Plc and Commerzbank AG are among companies targeted by investors suing Steinhoff International Holdings NV to recover as much as 12 billion euros ($13.8 billion) they claim they lost because of accounting irregularities at the retail giant, Bloomberg News reported. The suit was filed in Johannesburg and seeks class-action status to cover shareholders who bought Steinhoff stock from June 26, 2013 to December 5, 2017, South African lawfirm LHL Attorneys said in an emailed statement.
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Steinhoff International Holdings NV relocated two units at the heart of its accounting scandal to the U.K. as the retailer embarks on a new phase of recovery after reorganizing debt, Bloomberg News reported. Steinhoff Europe AG and Steinhoff Finance Holdings GmbH will move from Austria to Cheltenham, England -- where the South African company’s U.K. business is based. The supervisory boards of both units have been redrawn, with Steinhoff Chief Financial Officer Philip Dieperink and Commercial Director Louis du Preez holding positions at the Europe division.
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Steinhoff International Holdings NV has replaced Dirk Schreiber on the boards of two key units as the embattled retailer seeks to bolster independent oversight. The owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S. last week won support from a majority of creditors to restructure its 9.4 billion euros ($11 billion) of debt, a vital step toward its recovery from an accounting scandal, Bloomberg News reported.
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South Africa is getting down to the business of fixing its debt-ridden state power utility. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. had 399 billion rand ($30 billion) of debt at the end of March, according to Bloomberg data, and has been flagged by ratings companies as a key risk to South Africa’s economy, Bloomberg News reported. The utility has been mired in a series of scandals, struggled to raise funds and was forced to implement rolling blackouts last month after wage talks with unions broke down.
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Steinhoff's creditors have agreed to hold on their debt claims for three years, the embattled retailer said on Friday, throwing a lifeline for the South African retailer caught in the throes of an accounting scandal, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The parties will now seek to implement the restructuring within three months, the retailer, which has more than 40 retail brands including Conforama, Poundland and Mattress Firm, said.
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Two United Arab Emirates airlines have held talks with South African Airways about a partnership that it says is needed to revive its business, City Press reported, citing the U.A.E. ambassador to South Africa. Talks between Emirates Airline and SAA, which have been going on for some months, are being facilitated by the U.A.E.’s embassy in Pretoria, the Johannesburg-based newspaper cited Mahash Alhameli as saying, Bloomberg News reported. Etihad Airways has also been holding separate negotiations with SAA, he said.
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Steinhoff International Holdings NV won support from a majority of creditors to restructure its 9.4 billion euros ($11 billion) of debt, seen by the embattled retailer as a vital step toward its recovery from an accounting scandal, Bloomberg News reported. The owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the U.S. sought a three-year extension to payments due to lenders and bondholders as the South African company repairs its balance sheet.
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Steinhoff, extended for a second time on Wednesdaythe "early bird fee" deadline for creditors to sign a three-year agreement to hold off their debt claims, as the scandal-hit South African retailer battles to stay afloat, Nasdaq reported. Steinhoff wants to restructure its roughly nine billion euro debt after disclosing holes in its balance sheet that wiped more than 90 percent off its market value and forced it into asset sales to fund working capital.
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