Steinhoff to seek creditors' nod for unit Pepco Group IPO

(Reuters) -South African retail group Steinhoff said on Monday it had decided to seek necessary consent from its financial creditors for a listing of its unit and pan-European discount variety retailer Pepco Group.

The decision comes in the wake of last week's reports that Pepco had decided to list its shares in Warsaw rather than London, in what could become Poland's biggest initial public offering this year.

Pepco, which has more than 1,000 stores in Poland and owns British discount retailer Poundland, is valued at around 5 billion euros ($5.98 billion), according to sources.

In March, Pepco, which does not trade online, said it was considering a public listing of its shares in either London or Warsaw.

Steinhoff, which is still battling the fallout of a 2017 accounting scandal, along with its creditors has been evaluating a range of options for Pepco since 2019.

Pepco, which also trades as PEPCO and Dealz in Europe, ended 2020 with 3,218 stores. In 2021, it plans to open more than 200 more PEPCO stores, over 50 more Dealz stores and over 20 Poundland stores.

Steinhoff, which has its primary listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, said the listing would include the placement of shares held by Steinhoff in the Pepco Group.

($1 = 0.8363 euros)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)