ANN CROTTY: Making sense of Star’s R45m listing bill
What to make of Steinhoff Africa Retail’s R45m listing bill in the context of its R5m fine?
It seems you don’t get much for R45m these days, at least not in the world of investment banking. That was what Steinhoff Africa Retail (Star) spent on its listing expenses in September last year. Include private placement costs and the figure bumps up to R226m. In hindsight it could be argued the money was well spent; it created a chink of light through which Star was able to bolt when things went pear-shaped after Steinhoff’s fateful "irregular accounting" announcement in December last year. It meant that in a few short months Star was able to go from treasured member of the seriously compromised Steinhoff family to lucky orphan. Without the 23% minority shareholding (subsequently bumped up to 29%) the nightmare endured for the past 12 months by the executives of the renamed Pepkor would have been much darker. So, in the context of providing an escape route from Steinhoff, the listing and all the expenses associated with it appear reasonable. But what should we make of the R45m in...
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