JOHANNESBURG- South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has fined retailer Pepkor Holdings Ltd for breaching its listing requirements, it said on Monday.
Pepkor failed to disclose the Domestic Medium Term Note (DMTN) Programme guarantee for Steinhoff Services Limited, Business Ventures Investments (BVI) and loans to directors or key management personnel in its pre-listing statement and 2017 financial results, the JSE said in a statement.
Pepkor, previously known as Steinhoff Africa Retail, said in a statement it “acknowledged that inadequate disclosures were made during the process of its listing and the publication of its annual financial statements in 2017.”
The JSE said Pepkor had cooperated with the bourse during its investigation and promised to address the breaches.
“Notwithstanding this fact, the JSE has decided to impose this public censure against the company with a fine in the amount of five million rand ($364,000) of which one million rand is suspended for a period of two years.”
The JSE said that at the time of the listing, Pepkor’s wholly-owned subsidiary formed part of a group of companies which unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed the Steinhoff Services Limited 15 billion rand DMTN programme.
It also, through its subsidiaries, provided loans to directors or key management personnel in terms its management investment scheme through an entity called Business Ventures Investments, which amounted to 9 million rand as of Sept. 30 2017 and 18 million rand as of Sept. 30 2016.
Through its subsidiaries, it was also party to a guarantee of third party debt related to BVI and its exposure there equated to 440 million rand as of March 31 2018.
