The SA Reserve Bank has barred Ainsley Holdings, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Ibex, formerly Steinhoff, from trading more than 500-million shares in Pepkor — as the legal wrangle between the central bank and the company over alleged breaches to foreign exchange rules play itself out.
“In aggregate, Ainsley holds 1,041,708,550 Pepkor shares, which equates to 28.2% of Pepkor’s current shares in issue,” Pepkor said on Monday.
“Ainsley remains the beneficial owner of the Pepkor shares and retains all rights attached to them, including the right to exercise voting rights and receive dividends, if declared.”
Pepkor is worth about R91bn on the JSE — an indication of the multibillion rand in shares Ibex cannot trade if it wants to, due to the freeze of about half of its shareholding in the retailer.
The tit-for-tat between Ibex and the Reserve Bank has been ongoing for nearly a year now. The Bank in July last year froze about R6.2bn of Ibex’s funds — as part of its probe into the company’s cross-border transactions.
According to the Bank, the R6bn plus interest will be forfeited to the state. SA’s regulation 22A of the exchange regulations permits the National Treasury to attach assets linked to or suspected of being linked to contraventions of the regulations.
Ibex and its associates then launched a review of the decision taken by the Bank.
The Bank in April seized R60m in cash and property belonging to Berdine Odendaal, who is said to have been former Steinhoff CEO Markus Jooste’s lover. The central bank also seized cash held in Odendaal’s five accounts with Absa, Capitec and Standard Bank amounting to R42m. It then confiscated her R18m property in Paarl’s exclusive Val de Vie estate.
The move comes as no surprise as the central bank stated previously that it believed R60m was transferred from Steinhoff International businesses via Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators to Odendaal from 2011-15, in transactions that contravened exchange control regulations.
The Bank has also seized millions of rand belonging to former Steinhoff executive Stephanus Grobler.
Grobler is facing criminal charges over the huge fraud that sank the company in what became SA’s largest corporate fraud in history.
Grobler, who also uses the name Stéhan, was arrested a day after erstwhile CEO Markus Jooste committed suicide in Hermanus seven months ago.
Steinhoff is demanding Grobler pay back nearly R300m he was paid in salaries, bonuses and other incentives.
Grobler, who worked for the group in various capacities in a period spanning 19 years, is facing a demand of R238m from Steinhoff Africa Holdings, €1.3m from Steinhoff Europe Group Services and €315,000 from Steinhoff Europe.
In their particulars of claim, the entities said the money paid to Grobler during his stay with the group, in particular bonuses and share incentives, were paid out in the false belief that the financial statements of the group accurately reflected its true financial position, as well as its profitability and performance.
The group said that in light of the fraud that took place at the company, which saw its asset base inflated, it has been impoverished by the payments to Grobler and he was unjustifiably enriched in the process.
The lawsuit was initiated in May 2023.
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