Category Archives: off-balance sheet item

Steinhoff International Holdings

According to Wikipedia, “Steinhoff International is a South African international retail holding company that is dual listed in Germany. Steinhoff deals mainly in furniture and household goods, and operates in Europe, Africa, Asia, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.”  However, the stock chart tells us so much more about Steinhoff (SNH).

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According to the Financial Times:

“…investigators are focusing on ‘certain off-balance sheet structures and transactions, including those with certain closely related parties’, and mostly involve Steinhoff's ‘central European’ business (Mark Vandevelde, Joseph Cotterill, and Dan McCrum. “Focus shifts to lending units in Steinhoff investigation”. Financial Times. London. April 9, 2018. page 15.).”

In this instances, it appears that an off-balance sheet vehicle has contributed to the insurmountable losses of a once thriving retail empire.

A Footnote Become a Front Page Item

This is how we always imagined the party to end.  Somewhere and somehow, an accounting footnote known as an off-balance sheet entity or item becomes a front and center issue.

Searching the internet for a definition of “off-balance-sheet entity” you will find a fairly credible source in Investopedia.  Their first sentence on the topic says it all, “Off-balance-sheet entities are complex transactions where theory and reality collide.”

“Off-balance-sheet entities are complex transactions where theory and reality collide.”

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Looking any further on this topic and you’ll find many of the most infamous financial collapses centered around off-balance sheet entities or items, and emanating from the darkest corners of the corporate world.  So when a municipality announces their inability to pay for an off-balance sheet item, it should get you interested.