Steinhoff’s Markus Jooste thrown a lifeline by banks
His company Mayfair Holdings owes Sanlam, Investec and Absa a total of R959m; the lenders think a break-up agreement will realise more money than liquidation
Steinhoff International Holdings’ former CEO Markus Jooste has been thrown a lifeline by banks as the global retailer he oversaw for 18 years struggles to survive an accounting scandal that happened under his watch. His personal investment company Mayfair Holdings owes Sanlam’s capital markets arm, Investec and Absa, a banking unit of Barclays Africa Group, a combined R959m backed by Steinhoff stock, according to an agreement between Mayfair and its creditors seen by Bloomberg. After Steinhoff shares crashed when the company reported a hole in its accounts in December, Mayfair defaulted on the loans as it wasn’t able to immediately repay them. That gave the banks an option to liquidate the company or come up with a break-up proposal to release capital. The lenders agreed that the latter would realise more value, and have given Mayfair until the end of this year to sell as much as R2.08bn in assets ranging from real estate to racehorses to repay almost R1.6bn of loans to the banks an...
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