![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/In-the-money-Jooste.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nJooste quit on Dec. 5, 2017, the same day the company reported accounting irregularities that have since wiped 94 percent off the retailer\u2019s value, and the company has asked the police to investigate him. Daun left the board in February.<\/p>\n
Steinhoff, which now owns JD Group, has commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to probe its finances. It says restatements may have to go back at least as far as 2015. Steinhoff said it won\u2019t comment on past transactions and relationships until the probe is complete. The JD Group trades, which date back more than a decade, don\u2019t appear to have affected Steinhoff shareholders.<\/p>\n
Jooste, who was appointed group managing director in 2000, set up agreements with Daun from 2002 that would result in JD Group\u2019s takeover of Steinhoff\u2019s money-losing rival Profurn Ltd. and the acquisition of JD Group shares at the discount, according to the documents.<\/p>\n
Jooste\u2019s lawyer Callie Albertyn didn\u2019t respond to emails and messages left at his office. Daun didn\u2019t respond to queries.<\/p>\n
The dealing began in 2002, when FirstRand Ltd. executive Theunis Lategan asked Daun, once a director of Profurn, to help rescue the struggling retailer. The following year, JD Group took over Profurn.<\/p>\n
Following a 2002 rights offer by Profurn, underwritten by FirstRand, and its subsequent takeover by JD Group, FirstRand held 25 percent of JD Group\u2019s shares with a cost basis of 14.17 rand a share — compared with the 19.06 rand they averaged in 2002, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
Companies linked to Jooste and Daun bought the bulk of that stock from FirstRand at the discounted price of 14.17 and sold the shares for three times as much. Lategan referred queries to FirstRand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe discount is extraordinary,\u201d Magda Wierzycka, CEO of Cape Town-based Sygnia Asset Management, said in an emailed response to questions.<\/p>\n
It was a 17 percent discount to the shares\u2019 closing price on that day in June 2002 and a 64 percent discount to JD Group\u2019s price the day the transfer to an investment vehicle called Capstone 556 (Pty) Ltd. and Daun & Cie was completed, according to Bloomberg calculations. Capstone had Lategan on its board and its funding was overseen by Jooste.<\/p>\n
FirstRand said it wasn\u2019t under any obligation to disclose the price and that it had acted to save Profurn from collapse. The bank said it wasn\u2019t involved in the later sale of JD Group shares by Jooste and Daun.<\/p>\n
Capstone and Daun & Cie each sold 14 million JD Group shares at 42.50 rand a piece, generating a profit of 396.6 million rand for each company. Capstone then sold its remaining 3.5 million JD Group shares to Mayfair Speculators (Pty) Ltd., where Jooste was the sole director, for 45 rand a share.<\/p>\n
Profit Made<\/strong><\/p>\n Capstone\u2019s two sets of share sales led to a 504.5 million-rand profit and when added to Daun & Cie\u2019s takings, the total profit for the companies linked to Daun and Jooste was 901 million rand.<\/p>\n As with the entities involved in the car dealership properties and the forestry assets, Capstone was held through complicated structures that linked back to Fihag Finance Handels AG, the Swiss-based company that was initially controlled by Steinhoff founder Bruno Steinhoff, according to company filings.<\/p>\n Fihag was also a major shareholder in Steinhoff International. While JD Group was taken over by Steinhoff in 2015, Capstone still exists and Stefan Potgieter, Jooste\u2019s son-in-law, is now its only director, company filings show.<\/p>\n Fihag didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment while Potgieter said he wasn\u2019t party to the transactions.<\/p>\n
\n