Steinhoff's ex-chairman Wiese calls off $2.6 billion Shoprite deal amidst accounting scandal; Wall St. Banks Brace For $1.2bln Losses

...

Banks have sold 98.4 million of the shares they used as security to lend Wiese 1.6 billion euros ($1.89 billion) to fund the purchase of additional shares in Steinhoff in September 2016.

Steinhoff did not name the bank or banks that have exercised their security rights over the stock. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Nomura provided financing, which was backed by 628 million shares, or 15 percent of the company.

Steinhoff, which moved its primary share listing from Johannesburg to Frankfurt two years ago, has been under investigation for suspected accounting fraud in Germany since 2015. Four current and former managers are under suspicion of having overstated revenues at subsidiaries, prosecutors said.