Christo Wiese's bad debts mount up
Brait takes drubbing from high-street foray — and worse beckons
Brait has been the scene of spectacular value destruction for billionaire Christo Wiese and other investors over the past three years. Shares in the investment group are down 85% from their peak after it bet billions on British fashion retailer New Look only a year before the Brexit vote. Luxembourg-listed Brait, which also has a presence on the JSE, paid R14bn for 89% of the high-street retailer in 2015, but has since written the value of its investment down to zero. And a restructuring deal announced this week will see Brait lose most of the zero too. Brait, of which Wiese owns more than a third, is backing a transaction that could cut its stake in New Look to as low as 18%, with the aim of reducing the retailer's long-term debt by €1bn (R15.7bn) to €350m. Think of New Look as something between an Edgars store and a Mr Price. Starting out as a single shop 50 years go in Taunton, in southwest England, New Look grew to more than a 1,000 stores in the UK and Europe and was pushing in...
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