Christo Wiese: how do you recover from losing R125bn?
Until recently he was SA’s richest man – then came Steinhoff. Though he has lost a vast fortune, Christo Wiese is still a retail giant – not least through his stake in Shoprite
For a man turning 80 in September next year, Christo Wiese still has some pep in his step. But he has hardly any left in his portfolio. From his being SA’s wealthiest man only four years ago, the FM estimates that the value of his investments in JSE-listed companies has fallen by 93% — a scarcely conceivable R125bn having gone up in smoke.
His stake in investment firm Brait, which owns Virgin Active, has fallen from R23.2bn to just over R1bn, as the company’s share price plunged 97%; the value of his shares in industrial firm Invicta has fallen more than 80% to R397m; and his holding in property company Tradehold is now nearly a third of the R2.93bn it was in 2016...
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