{"id":224575,"date":"2018-02-11T08:56:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T06:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=224575"},"modified":"2018-02-11T08:56:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T06:56:27","slug":"wiese-cuts-stake-in-steinhoff-to-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/224575\/wiese-cuts-stake-in-steinhoff-to-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Wiese cuts stake in Steinhoff to 6%"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Christo Wiese, the former chairman of Steinhoff International Holdings NV, has slashed his stake in the retailer to 6.2%, a move that may mean one of South Africa\u2019s richest men is no longer the company\u2019s biggest shareholder.<\/p>\n

Wiese reduced his shares in Steinhoff, which is dealing with accounting irregularities, from 21%, according to a filing the billionaire made to the Netherlands\u2019 Authority for the Financial Markets on Friday.<\/p>\n

The filing didn\u2019t provide further details on the share disposal.<\/p>\n

The Public Investment Corp., which manages state-worker pensions in South Africa, was listed as the largest shareholder after Wiese with a 7.5% stake in Steinhoff as of Jan. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

At a hearing with South African lawmakers on Jan. 31, the PIC sought a review of the company\u2019s voting pool arrangements. The pension manager also wants regulations covering large personal shareholdings, according to chief executive officer Dan Matjila.<\/p>\n

Wiese also was at the hearing, and said news of the scandal came to him as \u201ca bolt from the blue\u201d and that he had no prior knowledge of any wrongdoing. Wiese, 76, has seen his net worth more than halve to $2.3 billion as Steinhoff\u2019s shares plunged.<\/p>\n

Furniture retailer Steinhoff has been reeling since it announced on Dec. 5 that it had uncovered accounting irregularities.\u00a0The disclosure helped to wipe about $14 billion from the retailer\u2019s market value.<\/p>\n

The company will have to restate its earnings for at least fiscal 2017, 2016 and 2015. Shares in Steinhoff crashed 80% in the two days following the announcement.<\/p>\n

In an emailed response to questions, Steinhoff said Wiese had notified the company of his share disposal, adding that it isn\u2019t able to comment on the reasons behind his action.<\/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":"

Christo Wiese, the former chairman of Steinhoff International Holdings NV, has slashed his stake in the retailer to 6.2%, a move that may mean one of South Africa\u2019s richest men is no longer the company\u2019s biggest shareholder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":215195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[11059],"class_list":["post-224575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-steinhoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224575","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=224575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224579,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224575\/revisions\/224579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}