Company: Steinhoff International
Country: South Africa
Sector: Holding
CEO: Not publicly listed
Website: Not publicly listed
Careers Page: Not publicly listed
LinkedIn: Not publicly listed
Email: Not publicly listed
Headquarters: Formerly Stellenbosch, South Africa, with holding entity domiciled in Amsterdam, Netherlands (now in liquidation)
Founded: 1964
Valuation/Revenue: $9,704m revenue (African Business Top 250, 2025 ranking) — this figure predates the company’s 2023 dissolution and no longer reflects an operating entity
Steinhoff International was once one of Africa’s largest diversified retail and industrial holding companies, controlling global furniture, retail and household goods brands. It is now defunct: following one of the largest corporate accounting scandals in South African history, Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. was formally delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in October 2023 and dissolved through a Dutch court-supervised restructuring, with its remaining assets transferred to a new entity, Ibex Investment Holdings, controlled by former creditors.
Is Steinhoff Still an Active Company?
No — and this is the single most important thing to know when researching Steinhoff today. The listed entity that appeared in past “biggest companies in Africa” rankings, Steinhoff International Holdings N.V., no longer exists as an operating, publicly traded business. It was delisted from the JSE and Frankfurt Stock Exchange in October 2023 and put into liquidation (“in liquidatie”) in the Netherlands after a court-approved restructuring (a Dutch WHOA scheme) wiped out existing shareholders and handed control of the remaining asset stakes to creditors through a new vehicle called Ibex Investment Holdings. Any revenue or scale figures attributed to “Steinhoff” from 2023 or earlier — including the roughly $9.7 billion figure that placed it among Africa’s largest companies by revenue in some historical rankings — reflect the pre-collapse consolidated group and should not be read as a current, ongoing business.
What Happened to Steinhoff?
In December 2017, Steinhoff’s long-serving CEO Markus Jooste resigned abruptly after an internal investigation uncovered massive accounting irregularities. A subsequent independent investigation by PwC found that, between roughly 2009 and 2017, senior executives had orchestrated fictitious and irregular transactions that inflated the group’s profits by approximately €6.5 billion (about $7.4 billion). Steinhoff’s share price collapsed by more than 90% within weeks of the announcement, wiping out tens of billions of dollars in shareholder value almost overnight and triggering more than 90 civil lawsuits from investors, plus criminal investigations in Germany and South Africa targeting Jooste and other executives.
How Was the Steinhoff Scandal Resolved?
Steinhoff spent roughly six years managing the fallout: divesting assets including Conforama France (sold in 2020) and UK brands Bensons for Beds and Harveys (sold in 2019), while retaining stakes in more valuable units like Pepkor Holdings (South African value retail, listed separately on the JSE), Pepco Group (European discount retail), a stake in US bedding retailer Mattress Firm, and Greenlit Brands (Australia/New Zealand furniture and homeware retail). By 2022 the company had established a roughly R25 billion global settlement fund for claimants, with auditor Deloitte contributing toward the settlement. In 2023, shareholders voted to dissolve the company and delist it from the JSE, with the German civil settlement and Dutch restructuring finalising its wind-down; the South African Reserve Bank and successor entity Ibex Investment Holdings reached a further R6.3 billion settlement related to the fraud in 2025.
Who Controls Steinhoff’s Former Assets Now?
Ibex Investment Holdings, a private entity that emerged from the 2023 restructuring, now holds what remains of Steinhoff’s stakes in businesses such as Pepkor and Pepco on behalf of the creditors who took control of the group in the debt-for-equity restructuring. Ibex has continued to sell down these positions — for example, disposing of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Pepkor shares — as part of an orderly unwind, rather than operating Steinhoff as an ongoing consolidated industrial or retail group in its own right.
Who Was the Last CEO of Steinhoff?
Markus Jooste led Steinhoff until his resignation in December 2017 amid the scandal; he died in March 2024 by suicide, hours before he and others were due to be served with a R475 million Financial Sector Conduct Authority fine notice related to the fraud. Louis du Preez subsequently led the group through much of its post-scandal restructuring period as CEO before the company’s 2023 dissolution. There is no current CEO of “Steinhoff” because the entity no longer operates as a going concern; Ibex Investment Holdings has its own separate leadership overseeing the wind-down of remaining stakes.
How Old Was Steinhoff?
Steinhoff was founded in 1964 in Germany by Bruno Steinhoff as a furniture trading business, later expanding into South Africa and growing over five decades into a sprawling, debt-fuelled international retail and industrial conglomerate before its 2017 collapse — meaning it operated for 53 years before the fraud was exposed, and a further six years winding down before its 2023 dissolution.
Links
Website: Not publicly listed (entity dissolved)
Careers Page: Not found
LinkedIn: Not found
Email: Not publicly listed
FAQ
Is Steinhoff still in business?
No. Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. was delisted in October 2023 and dissolved through a Dutch liquidation process; its remaining asset stakes are now held by successor entity Ibex Investment Holdings.
What caused Steinhoff’s collapse?
An accounting fraud, revealed in December 2017, that inflated group profits by roughly €6.5 billion over nearly a decade under CEO Markus Jooste.
Is Pepkor part of Steinhoff?
Pepkor is a separately JSE-listed South African retailer in which Steinhoff’s successor entity, Ibex Investment Holdings, held a residual stake as it wound down the group’s assets.
Who was Steinhoff’s CEO during the scandal?
Markus Jooste, who resigned in December 2017 and died in 2024.
Where was Steinhoff headquartered?
Its South African operating base was in Stellenbosch, while the listed holding company was domiciled in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
When was Steinhoff founded?
1964, in Germany.