Unions picket, demand new board at Steinhoff AGM

Trade union federation Fedusa, Cosas and the Public Servants Association staged a picket during a Steinhoff Annual General Meeting on Friday, demanding that it appoint a new board.

The AGM was held at the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Centre in the Netherlands, but it was live-streamed at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, where the group picketed.

Fedusa general secretary Dennis George said that the directors who had steered Steinhoff over the past few years could not be expected to extricate themselves from the accounting scandal.

“From our side we hope and we demand to make sure that the board will be changed. We hope the shareholders will stand up, so that we can turn this company around,” George said.

Steinhoff is facing investigations of alleged accounting irregularities and fraud, a scandal that saw its share price plunge by more than 95% in four months.

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The retail conglomerate is expected to give its shareholders an update on the investigations into its financial affairs as well as vote on the group’s supervisory board.

Board member and Steinhoff director Johan van Zyl stepped down on Thursday with immediate effect, declining to put his name up for re-election.

“My decision to resign before the AGM is the result of the company now building for the future, confidence following the board meeting with the supervisory board nominees in attendance and the fact that the independent committee, which I chair, has finished its work and is no longer required with the imminent appointment of the new board members,” he said in a statement.

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Meanwhile, Fin24 reported that German media announced on Friday that German authorities were expanding their investigation in the firm.

Fedusa does not have voting rights for the AGM but was represented in the meeting by the Public Investment Corporation, which manages the assets of the Government Employees Pension Fund.