When it rains, it pours.

Steinhoff isn’t a name that inspires great confidence at the moment – much like the name Marcus Jooste in Hermanus – and now the South African furniture retailer has a funding gap to plug.

Not a small one, either, because they’re “racing to plug a €200m funding gap in the next few days to avoid a small unit such as Austrian Kika-Leiner pulling down the entire group”.

That’s according to Business Live, with Steinhoff’s recent admission of “accounting irregularities” having obliterated around 85% (about $15 billion) off its market value.

Shame guys, things are so bad Jooste was forced to flog prize racehorse Legal Eagle – who then went on to win last weekend’s L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate.

Via Sportingpost, here’s a picture of that finish:

Lucky that bad karma doesn’t stick to horses.

Anyway, back to Steinhoff and their mess:

In talks with creditors, Steinhoff had conceded it has a funding gap of €550m, the sources said, adding that deals that had already been struck or were imminent brought the total down to about €200m…

“The main goal right now is to avoid any Steinhoff unit running out of cash and potentially pulling down the whole group,” one of the people said, adding that the new credit lines would probably plug financing needs for only three months…

A private company jet, which may fetch about €15m, has also been put on the block…

“Originally the idea was that a lot more money would be raised at group level, which included raising money for the UK and French subsidiaries,” said one restructuring adviser.

“But it is clear that these businesses don’t trust the group and wanted to do their own financings with their own advisers.”

You’d have to say that lack of trust is well-earned.

Sometimes crime doesn’t pay.

[source:businesslive]