A Steinhoff International Holdings NV logo sits on display outside the company's offices in Stellenbosch, South Africa, on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. Acquisitions including Pepkor Holdings Pty Ltd. and French furniture chain Conforama France SA have transformed Steinhoff International Holdings NV, which employs 90,000 people and has more than 6,500 stores in 30 countries from the U.K. to Australia. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg
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WORLDVIEW: Why I just love that Steinhoff has walked away from Shoprite
When merger negotiations were called off, the prices of both Shoprite and Steinhoff rallied, reflecting Mr Market’s relief that the deal won’t happen.
By Alec Hogg
It's rare that the termination of a proposed merger triggers an increase in the share prices of both companies. But there was a very good reason for that surprising result when a proposed R100bn deal between Steinhoff and Shoprite was aborted yesterday.
On December 14th, the biggest shareholders of the two groups – entrepreneur Christo Wiese and SA's state retirement fund custodian the Public Investment Commissioner – dropped something of a bombshell by proposing executives of the companies consider a R100bn merger.
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