After the accounting scandal

Financial market supervisory authority now sets its sights on Voest

The figures at one Voestalpine company had been embellished for years.(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

Is Voestalpine now facing real trouble? After it became known on Wednesday that the steel group based in Linz (Upper Austria) had not noticed embellished balance sheets in a German company for years, the Financial Market Authority is now taking aim at the company.

The figures in a German company of the Metal Forming Division may have been embellished for years! A manipulation that only came to light when the managing director of this division left the company.

This case, which Voestalpine has been dealing with since the spring and which the steel group had hidden in the annual report for 2023/24 from page 112 onwards, is now becoming a case for the Financial Market Authority. The FMA is targeting Voestalpine and investigating whether the company violated a reporting obligation.

"In this case, we have of course also continuously checked whether there is an ad hoc obligation and have always come to the very clear conclusion that there is no such obligation," company spokesman Peter Felsbach told APA.

Possible penalty could be expensive
The fact is that if the Financial Market Authority finds an offense, it could be very expensive for Voestalpine. The penalty is up to EUR 2.5 million or two percent of revenue.