{"id":219761,"date":"2018-01-17T15:01:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=219761"},"modified":"2018-01-17T15:01:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T13:01:00","slug":"ex-steinhoff-boss-jooste-seeking-r15-million-for-luxury-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/219761\/ex-steinhoff-boss-jooste-seeking-r15-million-for-luxury-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex Steinhoff boss Jooste seeking R15 million for luxury property"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steinhoff International Holdings NV\u2019s former chief executive officer Markus Jooste has put a plot on a luxury estate up for sale, asking R4.5 million ($366,000) more for the property than the embattled businessman paid for it two years ago.<\/p>\n

Jooste bought 978 at Val de Vie, a sprawling Western Cape residence with vineyards and space for 10 horses, for R10.5 million and is trying to sell it for R15 million, according to the Val de Vie\u2019s interactive sales map.<\/p>\n

He bought the estate in December 2015, the same month the global retailer moved its main listing to Frankfurt from Johannesburg, the state registry shows.<\/p>\n

The sale indicates that Jooste is trying to raise cash following his resignation from Steinhoff at the start of an accounting scandal six weeks ago. Mayfair Speculators, of which he was until recently a director, sold champion racehorse Legal Eagle last month, according to the Sporting Post.<\/p>\n

Jooste is a known horse racing fanatic, and\u00a0Val de Vie is an equestrian estate that\u2019s hosted Prince Harry for polo matches. Adding to its celebrity credentials, it also uses South African Olympic swimming champion Ryk Neethling for marketing.<\/p>\n

Steinhoff shares have lost almost 90 percent of their value since the owner of Mattress Firm in the US and Conforama in France said Dec. 5 it had uncovered accounting irregularities.<\/p>\n

Billionaire Chairman Christo Wiese has quit alongside Jooste, and the company has been in emergency talks with lenders to continue operating as a going concern. Neither have spoken publicly about what went wrong at the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt must be a liquidity issue,\u201d Petri Redelinghuys, founder of Herenya Capital Advisors, said by phone. \u201cYou need to have that liquidity whether it be for the business, or for legal fees or just to keep everything ticking over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jooste didn\u2019t respond to a mobile-phone message seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Jooste isn\u2019t the only one frantically trying to raise cash. Wiese, Steinhoff\u2019s largest shareholder, has seen his net worth cut by more than half and has had to sell shares in another company he\u2019s linked to for 4.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Steinhoff has sold a stake in South African investment holding company PSG Group, raising about $345 million, while other disposals included a 17% stake in French online retailer Showroomprive and a flagship store in Vienna for a combined 139 million euros. The company\u2019s luxury Gulfstream 550 jet, valued at about $25 million, has also been put up for sale.<\/p>\n

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Read: Wiese loses billionaire status as Steinhoff continues massive sell-off<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steinhoff International Holdings NV\u2019s former chief executive officer Markus Jooste has put a plot on a luxury estate up for sale, asking R4.5 million ($366,000) more for the property than the embattled businessman paid for it two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":214921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26,11059],"class_list":["post-219761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-headline","tag-steinhoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219763,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219761\/revisions\/219763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}