He sold his Lanzerac wine estate to Jooste in exchange for Steinhoff shares, and also swapped a block of his PSG shares for more Steinhoff shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, this was only the start. Wiese worked towards consolidating all his interests, including Shoprite and Pepkor, under Steinhoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, he became a Steinhoff director, and he became the largest shareholder and chairman after selling his company, Pepkor, to Steinhoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further increased his stake to finance Steinhoff’s acquisition of Mattress Firm in the United States. By 2016, Wiese held about 23% of Steinhoff’s shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next step in Wiese\u2019s Steinhoff master plan was to merge Shoprite and Steinhoff, creating an African retail powerhouse under Jooste\u2019s control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basson, who served as Shoprite’s chief executive for four decades, fiercely opposed the plan. He did not like Jooste and thought Steinhoff had many poor-quality businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea that Steinhoff would control Shoprite and that he would report to Jooste did not sit well with Basson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over his tenure as Shoprite CEO, Wiese has never meddled in Shoprite\u2019s management and left Basson to do as he saw fit. This was a winning formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the Steinhoff deal went through, it would completely change this dynamic. It would break the relationship and put Shoprite at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basson addressed these concerns with Wiese and cautioned him about Steinhoff. \u201cSwapping Shoprite shares for Steinhoff is like trading a champion horse for a donkey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese would not listen. The behind-the-scenes battles caused a rift between Bason and Wiese, which reached such concerning levels that Bason resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He even warned Wiese: \u201cI have never differed from you in public, but this time I will definitely do so. It would be the death knell for Shoprite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite Basson\u2019s resistance and repeated warnings about Steinhoff and Joose, Wiese steamed ahead with the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese saved by the bell<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Whitey-Basson-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>Former Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOn 14 December 2016, after Basson announced his retirement, Steinhoff and Shoprite announced that they had set out details of a proposed transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal included Shoprite acquiring Steinhoff\u2019s African retail operations. In exchange, Shoprite would issue new shares to Steinhoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would have given Steinhoff an interest of nearly 40% in Shoprite, making it the largest and controlling shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in February 2017, Steinhoff and Shoprite announced that the deal was off as shareholders could not reach an agreement on the share exchange value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese did not give up. He took a second bite at the cherry, and in September 2017, Steinhoff listed its African retail operations on the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It announced that Wiese and other large shareholders would exchange their Shoprite shares for a stake in the new company, Steinhoff African Retail (STAR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 30 November 2017, Steinhoff African Retail announced that it would acquire a controlling stake in Shoprite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in December 2017, Steinhoff disclosed accounting irregularities, which led to Jooste’s resignation and a dramatic collapse in its share price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shoprite deal was dead, and Jooste became the poster child for corporate corruption. Very few people would touch Steinhoff afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the Steinhoff collapse having wiped out R59 billion of his net wealth and Wiese losing his dollar billionaire status, he said it would have been much worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese said he was lucky only to lose R59 billion. He explained that he could have lost everything if the Shoprite deal had gone through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He admitted that he was wrong about the Steinhoff deal and Jooste and should have listened to Basson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billionaire Christo Wiese lost R59 billion by trusting Markus Jooste, and he could have been wiped out entirely if it were not for a fortuitous event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":793887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,1],"tags":[4137,22382,7520,11059,20403],"class_list":["post-822029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-trending","tag-christo-wiese","tag-markus-jooste","tag-shoprite","tag-steinhoff","tag-whitey-basson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822029","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822031,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822029\/revisions\/822031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a>On 14 December 2016, after Basson announced his retirement, Steinhoff and Shoprite announced that they had set out details of a proposed transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deal included Shoprite acquiring Steinhoff\u2019s African retail operations. In exchange, Shoprite would issue new shares to Steinhoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This would have given Steinhoff an interest of nearly 40% in Shoprite, making it the largest and controlling shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in February 2017, Steinhoff and Shoprite announced that the deal was off as shareholders could not reach an agreement on the share exchange value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese did not give up. He took a second bite at the cherry, and in September 2017, Steinhoff listed its African retail operations on the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It announced that Wiese and other large shareholders would exchange their Shoprite shares for a stake in the new company, Steinhoff African Retail (STAR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 30 November 2017, Steinhoff African Retail announced that it would acquire a controlling stake in Shoprite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in December 2017, Steinhoff disclosed accounting irregularities, which led to Jooste’s resignation and a dramatic collapse in its share price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Shoprite deal was dead, and Jooste became the poster child for corporate corruption. Very few people would touch Steinhoff afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the Steinhoff collapse having wiped out R59 billion of his net wealth and Wiese losing his dollar billionaire status, he said it would have been much worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wiese said he was lucky only to lose R59 billion. He explained that he could have lost everything if the Shoprite deal had gone through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He admitted that he was wrong about the Steinhoff deal and Jooste and should have listened to Basson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Billionaire Christo Wiese lost R59 billion by trusting Markus Jooste, and he could have been wiped out entirely if it were not for a fortuitous event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":793887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,1],"tags":[4137,22382,7520,11059,20403],"class_list":["post-822029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-trending","tag-christo-wiese","tag-markus-jooste","tag-shoprite","tag-steinhoff","tag-whitey-basson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822029","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822031,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822029\/revisions\/822031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}