Steinhoff Shares Slump After Report Furniture Maker Probed For Alleged Accounting Fraud

Shares of Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. slumped 8.7% to EUR3.87 on the German MDAX midcap index following a media report that German prosecutors are investigating the company's chief executive and other managers for alleged accounting fraud. Steinhoff is Europe's second-largest furniture manufacturer after Ikea. Its shares are listed in Frankfurt and Johannesburg. German prosecutors in Oldenburg said they couldn't immediately comment on the report. Steinhoff spokespeople at the company's South African headquarters weren't immediately available to comment. According to the media report, which cites German prosecutors, the investigation, which started in 2015, alleges that transactions within the group inflated revenue numbers in group subsidiaries, amounting to a three-digit-million euro sum for each transaction in question.

Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com, Stefanie Haxel at stefanie.haxel@wsj.com and Michael Denzin at michael.denzin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 24, 2017 07:19 ET (11:19 GMT)