Did Capitec pay for damning Intellidex report on Viceroy?
Questions emerge about the report on short seller Viceroy commissioned by business body BLSA
Questions have emerged over an independent report commissioned by Business Leadership SA (BLSA) into controversial short seller Viceroy, with suggestions that Capitec — one of Viceroy’s recent targets — commissioned it and was going to pay for it. The report, done by financial research company Intellidex, was a thoroughgoing demolition of Viceroy’s work and the integrity of its members, including evidence of plagiarism and the suggestion that it does not conduct its own research but uses that of other short sellers and hedge funds. Capitec was hit hard by a Viceroy report in January, which described it as a predatory lender that should be placed under curatorship. The report was widely dismissed as inaccurate, including by the Reserve Bank. Both BLSA chairman Jabu Mabuza and CE Bonang Mohale say that the research was commissioned by the organisation’s executive management on its own initiative. However, in an exchange of e-mails between Mohale and Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie in mid-Ju...
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