Hey Markus, drop hostile bids; here’s a Steinhoff plum – UK’s bankrupt BHS

For a billionaire who is shaking up Europe’s retail sector, Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste keeps his feet very much on the ground. Together with newish partner Christo Wiese, his Frankfurt listed group has launched a couple of hostile and ultimately unsuccessful bids, first for a UK retailer and most recently a French one. They failed not because Steinhoff doesn’t possess sufficient firepower to have outmuscled its rivals. Rather, because part of Jooste’s business genius has been appreciating that in growing businesses you need both luck and discipline. He has never forgotten a bullet dodged in the early 1990s when globalising SABMiller auctioned off its prized SA furniture manufacturing interests. Jooste’s fledgling business bid a fraction too low (25c on almost R20 a share) so the deal went to a rival. Within a couple years, however, the market had turned so dramatically that the winning bidder went bust – and Steinhoff concluded its company transforming deal at a quarter of the price it very nearly paid. Guided by his former boss and fellow Steinhoff director, hugely successful “corporate undertaker” Claus Daun, Jooste’s best deals have been bargain basement. And with his sights set on Europe, as the Bloomberg analysts opine below, an obvious opportunity awaits in bankrupt UK retailer BHS. Steinhoff has the experience, ambition and muscle to make it happen. And because it is sure to be at a great price, buying BHS is the kind of deal Steinhoff shareholders will love. Perhaps its challenge-seeking executives, too. – Alec Hogg

By Andrea Felsted and Chris Hughes

(Bloomberg) — In quick succession, Steinhoff has turned its back first on Home Retail Group and now Darty. The South African retailer should waste no more time barging into other peoples’ bids. It should buy BHS instead.

The 88-year-old British retailer — sold for a pound by Philip Green just over a year ago — is in administration. Nobody wanted to rescue it before its collapse. People close to Steinhoff cast an eye over BHS when it was still owned by Green but didn’t bite. It should now.

Markus_Jooste_December_2015

BHS had sales of 668 million pounds ($973 million) in the year to August 30 2014 — the last publicly available accounts — and made a post-tax loss of 70 million pounds. Trading is unlikely to have got much better since, given the dire conditions on the U.K. high street, although sales have picked up since the collapse on Monday, amid an outpouring of nostalgia for a previously overlooked brand.

So Steinhoff won’t have to pay that much. It’s also unlikely it would be saddled with BHS’s pension liabilities. These are likely to end up with Britain’s pensions lifeboat, the Pension Protection Fund.

There might be competition for some stores — from the likes of Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct and value retailers such as Dunelm and B&M. But in contrast to the Home Retail and Darty situations, there’s unlikely to be much competition for the whole of BHS.

If Steinhoff wants to pursue its aim of being a budget retailer for the masses — think a European Walmart — then adding BHS makes sense. The 164 stores would give it a presence on high streets and retail parks across the U.K.

The chain is also well known for its homewares, potentially creating synergies with Steinhoff’s U.K. retail businesses Harveys furniture and Bensons for Beds. Green himself looked at adding beds chain Dreams to BHS in 2013, when he still owned the department store.

Christo Wiese, the South African entrepreneur who’s Steinhoff’s biggest shareholder, also backs Pep & Co, a value fashion retailer, potentially bolstering its buying power in clothing.

The problem is space. Pep & Co has already opened about 50 units on provincial high streets. BHS’s stores are large, although some of their space is occupied by Green’s other Arcadia brands such as Wallis and Dorothy Perkins. Some BHS stores are also paying high rents agreed many years ago and face long leases. Exiting these will be costly.

Then there are the losses. BHS has not made a profit for years. The stores are tired and in need of significant investment. That doesn’t come cheap. Nor does expanding BHS’s online presence, something that was already on the current management’s to-do list.

But Steinhoff was prepared to pay 1.4 billion pounds for Argos, or 1.1 billion pounds after taking Home Retail’s 300 million pounds of cash into account. Before synergies, that would have given it profit after tax of about 60 million, a 5.5 percent return.

Generating 60 million of profit from BHS looks like a tall task at the moment. But it’s hard to see that acquiring and turning round the chain — which may be pension free and rid of funding constraints — would cost more than Steinhoff was prepared to put into Argos.

This is one time when barging in would be welcome. Time to saddle up.

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