Great excitement on the day before the day that marks the last working day of the year for many of us; on December 14, Shoprite and Steinhoff released a Sens statement entitled "joint detailed cautionary announcement relating to the establishment of an African retail champion". Turns out that was a bit misleading. It should have read: "Lots of fuzzy chat about creating the sort of African retail champion that would ensure the enthusiastic backing of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), but few real details." The most important detail left out was the exchange ratio that was going to be used in the Steinhoff share-for-Shoprite share exchange. It was perhaps understandable. The controlling shareholders in these two listed entities – essentially Christo Wiese and the PIC – wanted to get their ducks in a row and see how the market responded to the idea before announcing the very detail that would make or break the deal. But it’s now almost five weeks later and we’re still waiting fo...
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