Shoprite investors approve R1.7bn repurchase of Whitey Basson’s shares
This decision, backed by 95% of shareholders, enables the retailer to buy the shares at a discount
Shoprite shareholders voted in favour of the purchase of about R1.75bn of shares from former CEO Whitey Basson, enabling Africa’s largest food retailer to buy at a discount to the current share price. The decision enables the Cape Town-based company to buy 8.68-million shares from Basson at R201.01 per share after he exercised a put option granted to him 14 years ago. That compares with a market price of R221.98 at 10.54am in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Billionaire Christo Wiese, Shoprite’s largest shareholder and SA’s fourth-richest person with a net worth of $5.6bn, said on August 22 that the 2003 put option served to ensure Basson didn’t “flood the market” with shares and was also part of an incentive to retain him in the role. The shares could always be reissued to investors, he said after the Tuesday vote. The decision comes weeks before a partial tie-up of Shoprite and the African unit of retailer Steinhoff International Holdings, a deal that allows Wiese, the chairman and bigges...
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