South Africa’s financial regulator has fined Steinhoff International Holdings the owner of the Dealz discount chain here and Poundland in the UK.

Scandal-hit retailer Steinhoff said it had refinanced some €9bn of debt in its overseas operations which include Dealz in the Republic, Poundland in the North and Britain, and France’s Conforama, after pushing the deadline date back repeatedly.

Steinhoff International has suspended former chief financial officer Ben La Grange and ex-director Stehan Grobler in the first action taken against executives by the company as part of an ongoing investigation into the retailer group’s finances following an accounting scandal.

Crisis-hit South African retailer, Steinhoff — which owns the Dealz-Poundland discount stores in Ireland — is considering “all of its options” to support its liquidity, after a report that it could sell a stake in its African unit.

South Africa’s Steinhoff International — which owns the Dealz-Poundland stores in Ireland — plans to sell almost 7.5bn rand (€509m) of shares in South African financial services firm PSG Group, the latest in a line of disposals aimed at shoring up the retail group’s battered balance sheet.

Steinhoff, the parent group of the Dealz and Poundland discount stores, will have to restate its 2015 accounts and maybe earlier figures, the South African retailer has said, having already warned on its 2016 numbers.

The parent group of the retail discounter Dealz and Poundland stores is facing huge pressure in Germany following an accounting scandal in South Africa.

South African retail holding company Steinhoff will strengthen its presence in the British retail sector after agreeing a £597m (€716m) takeover of discount chain Poundland, it said yesterday.

British discount retailer Poundland is set to focus its expansion plans on the Irish market in the next nine months.

Sainsbury’s, Britain’s second biggest supermarket, reported its first quarterly sales increase in more than two years, three days before a deadline for it to raise its offer for Home Retail, which owns Argos.

British takeover target Home Retail reported improved trading at its Argos stores and a bigger-than-expected cash pile yesterday, a week before a deadline for bids.