STEINHOFF shares rose nearly 10 percent on the JSE yesterday before easing 7.9 percent to R2.04 after the embattled retailer claimed a victory against Hamilton.
The rare victory came on the back of a Dutch court rejection of Hamilton BV and Hamilton 2 BV’s appeal in its proposed global litigation settlement and Dutch suspension of payments (Dutch SoP) proceedings.
Steinhoff said Hamilton lodged an appeal as it was previously announced on May 28 against the decision of the Amsterdam District Court concerning the appointment of a committee of representation and measures regarding the list of claims as referred to in Article 259 of the Dutch Bankruptcy Act.
“That hearing on the admissibility of the appeal was heard on June 22 before the Amsterdam Court of Appeal,” the group said.
Hamilton is seeking R14 billion claims against Steinhoff following the December 2017 admission to accounting irregularities which led to a 95 percent decline in its share price.
In March, Steinhoff said it would make available R6.54 billion as total settlement consideration to market purchase claimants (MPC) and contractual claimants against it.
Steinhoff’s participating claimants are categorised as MPCs, contractual claimants and financial creditors.
Steinhoff said the court rejected Hamilton’s appeal on Tuesday.
The retailer said that Hamilton had separately lodged an appeal against the June 15 ruling of the court to dismiss the counter-requests for interim measures related to the Dutch SoP claim analysis and voting process.
“That appeal is currently pending before the Court of Appeal. Steinhoff will continue its defence against any attempt to disrupt the proposed global litigation settlement and its ongoing Dutch SoP,” the group said.
Steinhoff said it would provide further updates to the market in due course.
The group also updated last week that Dutch SoP proceedings meeting regarding the deliberation and vote on the composition plan, which was originally scheduled to take place on June 30, had now been moved to September 3.
This comes after the group released its half-year results for the six months to end March last Friday, stating that it produced a resilient performance, despite operating in an environment dominated by the Covid-19 outbreak, but said that if a litigation settlement proposal process failed, the company would collapse by the end of the year.
In the results, the group slashed its half-year loss to €359 million (R6.15bn), down from €1.52bn, compared to last year.
It said its management had assessed if the company could continue as a going concern while it rides out the fallout of the erstwhile accounting irregularities.
BUSINESS REPORT