STEINHOFF
Merger with Steinhoff is not an option, says Shoprite CEO
Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht says a merger would not make sense now
The two South African retailers were natural bedfellows. They shared a billionaire shareholder and chairman and each had plans for European expansion. Then Steinhoff International imploded, torpedoing its collaboration with Shoprite. Before Steinhoff uncovered accounting irregularities in early December, chairman Christo Wiese had embarked on an ambitious project. To bring all his African retail assets under one roof, Wiese devised a way to merge the company’s operations on the continent with Shoprite, the continent’s biggest supermarket chain, in which he is the biggest investor. That process was well under way when the Steinhoff scandal broke on December 5, leading to an almost 90% plunge in the furniture retailer’s share price. "There is no sense in that [merging with Steinhoff] now — it’s off the table for good," Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said in an interview after presenting half-year results in Cape Town on Tuesday. Steinhoff’s "mess must be cleaned up". At Shoprite’s pr...
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