THE Government Institutions Pension Fund is suing the South African company, Steinhoff Holdings International, for possible losses of around N$700 million invested in the company since 2014.

Steinhoff Holdings International is a global retailer with more than 40 brands in over 30 countries.

Some of Steinhoff’s outlets are Incredible Connection, Hifi Corp, Hertz Car Rental, Timbercity, Pep Stores, Dunns, Shoe City, Pennypinchers, Tekkie Town and Ackermans, among many others.

The company was hit by a N$100 billion fraud that wiped out about N$15 billion of South African government workers’ pensions and social savings.

GIPF invested N$400 million in Steinhoff in 2014, which according to chief executive David Nuyoma, had grown to N$700 million when the fraud was uncovered.

Although Nuyoma said GIPF’s exposure was minimal and would not strongly affect their financial position, he insisted they would sue to recover whatever was lost. Nuyoma did not say how much GIPF had lost.

“It is important to note that Steinhoff is not among GIPF’s top 20 holdings and thus its exposure is much smaller to the total fund. The total shareholding is less than 1% of the Steinhoff market cap,” he said.

Nuyoma said there is no need to sell their shares in Steinhoff now since the company was “currently operating and trading”.

Read more @Namibian