Lenders have given Mayfair Speculators until the end of this year to sell as much as R2.08bn in assets ranging from real estate to racehorses to repay almost R1.6bn of loans to the banks and other creditors.
Markus Jooste – lifeline
Fin 24 reports that as well as the lenders, creditors include two companies tied to Steinhoff International Holdings former chief executive officer Markus Jooste and his son-in-law, Stefan Potgieter, which may realize more than R200m from the disposals.
Mayfair will also be able to keep any proceeds left over after creditors are repaid, which could amount to about R500m.
Jooste has thus been thrown a lifeline by banks as the global retailer he oversaw for 18 years struggles to survive an accounting scandal that happened under his watch.
The 57-year-old’s personal investment company Mayfair Holdings owes Sanlam’s capital markets arm, Investec and ABSA, a banking unit of Barclays Africa Group, a combined R959m backed by Steinhoff stock, according to an agreement between Mayfair and its creditors seen by Bloomberg.
After Steinhoff shares crashed when the company reported a hole in its accounts in December last year, Mayfair defaulted on the loans and wasn’t able to immediately repay them. That gave the banks an option to liquidate the company or come up with a breakup proposal to release capital.
