100 million euros

Now Voestalpine is threatened by a balance sheet scandal

The scandal over the falsified balance sheets became public on Wednesday.

(Bild: Voestalpine)

Voestalpine presented a drop in profits of 970 million euros on Wednesday. But that was not all. A few hours after the figures were published, it became known that the company is also having to deal with an accounting scandal.

A manager and an accountant are suspected of having falsified the balance sheets for years, the OÖN reported. They "are said to have deliberately made incorrect postings to improve results over several years", according to the report. It is suspected that the manager wanted to advance his career in this way. This is said to have involved up to 100 million euros.

Group confirms
"We can confirm that, from today's perspective, at least two people were involved. These individuals were well aware of the internal control systems and deliberately circumvented them. voestalpine can only provide further details on this matter once the final report is available," said voestalpine in a statement.

The accounting frauds were discovered during an internal controlling process. The investigation would take some time. The 2022/23 balance sheet would have to be corrected, and the financial consequences had already been taken into account in the 2023/24 consolidated financial statements.

It is still unclear what legal consequences the whole matter will have for the two ex-employees. The former managing director of the company concerned, who was later also a member of the Metal Forming Division's Management Board, has no longer worked for the Group since fall 2023, as Voestalpine confirms.