[imagesource: Dwayne Senior / Bloomberg]

If Steinhoff can bounce back from what can be euphemistically described as a fall from grace, it will be quite the turnaround.

We are nowhere near that point, but on Tuesday, the company’s share price did rocket up by 50%, closing on R2,38 a share after opening at R1,58.

For a sense of perspective, in late 2017, before the company plunged off the cliff, a share was worth R46, and fell to R6 within three days of investigations into ‘accounting irregularities’ being announced, and Markus Jooste resigning.

Has anybody seen ‘ol Markus around Hermanus in a while? Has he settled that fine he was slapped with last October? How are things between him and his alleged mistress?

We don’t have the answers to those questions, but let’s get back to the reason for that recent 50% surge, with more from Fin24:

Earlier in the week Steinhoff announced that it was reviving plans to list its European discount retail subsidiary the Pepco Group.

The Pepco Group owns the PEPCO and Dealz brands in Europe, and Poundland in the United Kingdom.

In its Q1 trading update for 2021, the Pepco Group said it continued to “trade resiliently” while increasing its total number of stores in spite of the pandemic…

Meanwhile, the group ended the latest quarter with a total of 3 218 stores, compared with 2 809 in the at the end of the first quarter of 2020.

Pepco reported strong sales figures for the quarter that ended in December, hence that surge for Steinhoff.

Using Sharenet’s share tracker, as of 10:34 this morning, Steinhoff was trading at R2,28 a share.

Plotted over a three-month period, that recent surge is clearly visible:

Great, but that ‘R46 a share’ memory will always be hanging over the company’s head.

[sources:fin24&sharenet]