Austrian-based discount retailer XXXLutz has bought Swiss furniture chain Lipo from retailer Steinhoff, Bloomberg reported on Monday afternoon.
The purchase of 23 Steinhoff stores by XXXLutz, which runs furniture stores in Austria was widely reported in international media.
Bloomberg did not provide the source of its information, however, and the amount that Lipo’s Swiss stores will be sold for has not been disclosed.
The news comes on the same day that retailer Steinhoff told the market that its US-based Mattress Firm has filed an application with regulators for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
As Steinhoff’s global settlement to end the lawsuits from more than 130 litigants is almost guaranteed and is awaiting a rubber stamp by a Cape Town court, it is able to turn its attention to operating its businesses and paying down debt.
The number of Mattress Firm shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined, the retailer said in a statement.
Steinhoff had announced in September that Mattress Firm was considering various options. Its listing follows that of Steinhoff’s European discount retailer Pepco in 2021.
Steinhoff had raised about €1bn (R17bn) through Pepco’s listing, most of which was also used to reduce debt, which was reported at about €10bn (R176.8bn) in its latest results.
Mattress Firm is the biggest mattress retailer in the US, with more than 2,300 stores. Steinhoff has a 50.1% stake in the company, which is considered an associate, not a subsidiary, reflecting the extent of its control.
Shares of Steinhoff, which is valued at R21.3bn on the JSE, have more than quadrupled over the past year as it made progress in pursuing the global settlement process to remove the threat of lawsuits stemming from its accounting scandal, which was revealed in December 2017.
The group’s shares had surged a quarter on December 28 when it announced that creditors were supportive of the Steinhoff settlements with the former owners of shoe retailer Tekkie Town and Mauritius-based Trevo Capital — the last two companies that stood between Steinhoff and the conclusion of the global settlement.
The two settlements paved the way for the group to put about two years of legal wrangling behind it and finalise its R24bn proposal. This agreement needs to be sanctioned in SA, with an unopposed court hearing set for later in January.
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