Whitey's R1.8bn Shoprite windfall
Hush-hush Shoprite deal stuns investors
Will shareholders allow Shoprite to hand over R1.8bn to Whitey Basson as part of an agreement they had never heard of?
Will shareholders allow Shoprite to hand over R1.8bn to Whitey Basson as part of an agreement they had never heard of? Back in 2011, when critics got into a flap about the R595m that former Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson made when he exercised a chunk of the share options he’d received as part of his remuneration package, chairman Christo Wiese told the Financial Mail: "I would pay R1bn in the middle of the night for another Whitey." At Shoprite’s AGM in late October 2016 Wiese again jumped to the defence of Basson’s remuneration package. This time he told testy investors, who’d questioned the R100m (including a cash bonus of R50m) paid to Basson in 2016, "I would have been happy to pay him much more". Shoprite’s recent shocking Sens announcement about Basson’s Put option is proof that Wiese was not exaggerating. Far from it. It seems Wiese actually understated the generosity he (on behalf of his shareholders) was prepared to heap upon Basson, who retired from the group in December. The...
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