By Bre Bradham and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Bloomberg.
Ibex, formerly known as Steinhoff International Holdings NV., will exit its 28% stake in Africa’s largest clothing retailer, Pepkor Holdings.
The company will offer one billion shares, worth about R28 billion, according to the terms of the deal published Monday.
Demand for the shares exceeded the stock being offered within minutes of the transaction launching, the terms show.
Steinhoff changed its name to Ibex Investment Holdings Ltd. in 2023. It holds the Pepkor stake through its wholly-owned unit Ainsley.
The company has been restructuring since Steinhoff, the former owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the US, collapsed after auditors refused to sign off on its financial statements in late 2017.
That led to the start of police and regulatory investigations in both Europe and South Africa. A forensic probe by auditor PwC uncovered €6.5 billion of irregular transactions with eight firms over eight years.
Pepkor, which owns almost 6,000 stores selling low-cost clothing, is tapping a pan-African boom in the use of phones for payment and banking services as well as for communication. Its shares closed 2% lower to trade at 27.06 rand.