Why Would I Take My Life's Work And Gamble With It?

As the third-largest shareholder in Steinhoff, Christo Wiese suffered a devastating financial loss when former CEO Markus Jooste’s fraudulent scheming hit newsstands. But questions about Wiese’s knowledge of Jooste’s duplicity remain – how could he not have known? In this interview with finweek, he speaks candidly about the scandal, and Jooste.

- Marcia Klein

There is a lot of anger out there following the Steinhoff disaster. And at least some of it is directed at Christo Wiese. Wiese was Steinhoff’s chairman (since May 2016), is a major shareholder and the driving force behind the merger of Steinhoff with Pepkor (to create Steinhoff Africa Retail, or Star) and, ultimately, with Shoprite, to consolidate his investments.

The anger is centered around Wiese’s open support of Steinhoff and its disgraced former CEO Markus Jooste. His detractors question how much he knew of what was going on at Steinhoff and whether he was in cahoots with Jooste, now known to be the mastermind of multibillion-rand fraud.

The deception was complex and some six months after it was uncovered, Steinhoff has still not been able to give investors a picture of what happened as investigators sort through the rubble.

Steinhoff has cost Wiese R50bn. But he is still considerably wealthy, and his knock has been easier to cushion than the losses many ordinary investors have incurred. Hence the anger.

But Wiese finds it “astounding” that people question him, and is irked by questions over his involvement in a company which he, and many investors, put their faith in. It also upsets him when people say he is able to cushion the Steinhoff blow, whereas others have suffered terribly from its demise, saying he has worked for his money, which is “as valuable to me as much as everyone else’s money”.

KNOCK-ON EFFECTS

There is some concern about the knock-on effect on other companies Wiese is invested in, with him resigning from some boards (such as New Look) and selling some investments, including a chunk of his shares in Shoprite, to meet obligations and free himself to focus on the issues at hand.

Invicta and Brait results have done little to allay these concerns.