S&T AG: Deloitte completes forensic investigation on allegations of short-seller Viceroy
S&T AG (www.snt.at, ISIN AT0000A0E9W5, WKN A0X9EJ, SANT) today received the report of the auditing firm Deloitte Financial Advisory ("Deloitte") on the independent forensic audit conducted by Deloitte on the material allegations raised in a publication by short seller Viceroy Research LLC ("Viceroy") in December 2021.
The Deloitte report confirms S&T's detailed statement of December 28, 2021 regarding Viceroy's allegations in all material respects. The allegations made by Viceroy proved to be almost completely inaccurate, as they concerned matters that do not relate to the S&T Group at all, were misrepresented by Viceroy or are immaterial.
With regard to a single aspect of the allegations raised by Viceroy ("funworld" topic), the Deloitte report concludes that a notes disclosure made by S&T AG in the past was incomplete: the capital increase at funworld gmbh subscribed by S&T AG on August 22, 2017 represents, in the view of Deloitte, a related party transaction from the perspective of S&T due to the participation of Hannes Niederhauser, CEO of S&T AG, in funworld gmbh at that time and the - as now determined - required attribution of the shares of European Angels Funds S.C.A. in funworld gmbh held by him in trust. Therefore, the following additional disclosure would have been required in the 2017 consolidated financial statements on page 83: "funworld is a related party of S&T AG and therefore the capital increase of TEUR 280 also represents a related party transaction." This finding has no impact on previous stand-alone or consolidated financial statements of S&T AG.
In the interest of full transparency, comprehensive compliance and good corporate governance, S&T has decided to publish the summary of the main findings of the external forensic audit prepared by Deloitte. The summary of the main findings of the independent audit is available on the Company's website at www.ir.snt.at. The publication of the audited financial statements of S&T AG for the financial year 2021 will take place as planned on March 21, 2022.