Steinhoff to pursue global settlement after Amsterdam District Court decision

STEINHOFF International Holdings yesterday reported that the Amsterdam District Court had refused to grant the additional requests made by Hamilton for interim measures related to the Settlement of Payments (SoP) claim analysis and voting process, leaving the beleaguered group room to pursue a proposed global settlement and its continuing suspension of payment proceedings.

The group said the ruling, which could not be appealed, had been deferred from earlier this month when the court heard the requests made by Hamilton and Lancaster 101, opposing parties on the proposed global settlement Lancaster 101 had withdrawn all its requests in reference to its proposed global settlement.

Hamilton, which is seeking R14 billion claims against Steinhoff, separately lodged an appeal against the May 28, 2021, decision of the court to appoint the Committee of Representation. That appeal is currently pending before the Amsterdam Court of Appeal with a hearing on the admissibility of the appeal being scheduled for June 22, 2021.

“Steinhoff International Holdings will continue its defence against any attempt to disrupt the proposed global litigation settlement and Steinhoff International Holdings’ ongoing Dutch SoP,” the group said in a note to shareholders.

“The appeal lodged by Hamilton has not caused the court to reschedule the deadline of June 15, 2021, for the submission of claims against Steinhoff International Holdings.

“The claims administrator will now commence a review of the claims that have been received in the Dutch SoP.”

Steinhoff’s administrators have

requested the supervisory judges in the Dutch SoP to defer the creditors’ meeting of June 30, 2021.

This request is currently pending, and no revised date for the creditors’ meeting has yet been scheduled.

Earlier this year the retail group said it would make available €370 million (R6.17 billion) as total settlement consideration to market purchase claimants (MPC) and contractual claimants

against it.

The offer comes after Steinhoff made an application to the Amsterdam District Court for a suspension of payments procedure (Dutch SoP), which was followed by the launching of a statutory compromise process under South African law (S155 Scheme), also as part of the implementation of the Steinhoff Group global settlement.

The group said the settlement consideration

would be paid through its Stichting Steinhoff Recovery Foundation by way of 50 percent in cash and 50 percent in shares indirectly owned by the group in Pepkor Holdings at a deemed price of R15 a share.

Steinhoff’s participating claimants are categorised as MPCs, contractual claimants and financial creditors.

Steinhoff International has a primary listing on the Frankfurt Stock

Exchange and a secondary listing on the JSE Limited.

The claims against Steinhoff were a result of the December 2017 admission to accounting irregularities that led to its share price declining by more than 90 percent and a loss of more than R200bn in it market capitalisation.

Steinhoff shares traded 2.6 percent higher in intraday trade, ending the day at R1.95 on the JSE.