Steinhoff - comment

Steinhoff have sent their Q1 sales update through December. We’ve had some of the subsidiary updates already but in total, Pepco continues to do very well, Mattress Firm sales have been falling 14% on lower customer transactions, which was largely known, but is better than what we feared a year ago. We think there is further downside ahead for the US Mattress retailer, but there won’t be a return to any distress. Pepkor has seen more mixed results with LfL sales flat and even down in its retail and apparel segments. Inflation is still set to rise in SA and so the outlook is probably more sideways performance for the year.