Markus Jooste

Markus Johannes Jooste (born 22 January 1961) is a South African businessman and the former CEO of Steinhoff International.

Jooste matriculated from Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool in 1978.

He obtained a BAcc degree from Stellenbosch University in 1982, and subsequently obtained an honours degree at the University of Cape Town while completing his CA(SA) articles where one of his audit clients was a company then owned by Christo Wiese.

After training as a chartered accountant in his 20s, he was appointed financial director of a publicly listed company.

At age 27 he became the financial director of GommaGomma, where he met German entrepreneur Claas Daun, who coached him in business.

Jooste and Daun acted as non-executive directors of Steinhoff International from 1988, and Jooste became its CEO in 2000.

In his role as CEO, he built the company through numerous acquisitions from a small furniture manufacturer to a large corporation in the furniture industry.

Aided by the Panama Papers, some journalists contend that insider trading occurred since Steinhoff's listing in 1998, and that the company's top brass acted on both sides of several deals.

Leveraged Steinhoff shares served as currency to remunerate third parties, while shareholder value was diluted to acquisitions in which Jooste and a circle of associates had allegedly acquired prior stakes.

As South Africa's Hawks investigative unit admitted to making no progress at all, while the NPA lacked the in-house skills to address crimes of this nature, criminal charges were not forthcoming.

The ruinous impact on pension funds caused some South African lawmakers to express dismay at the lack of prosecution, and some demanded arrests of the culpable parties without delay.

The JSE has meanwhile found Jooste guilty of two contraventions of listing requirements, and imposed a maximum fine of R15 million on him personally, while barring him from acting as a director of a listed company for a period of 20 years.

Jooste's father was a postal worker and an avid horse race punter, instilling also in his son an interest in the races.

On his part, Jooste convinced Daun in 1998 to merge his business with that of Bruno Steinhoff in Europe, and to list Steinhoff International on the JSE.

Piet Ferreira, a former investment banker who joined Steinhoff in 2002, was instrumental in structuring its public offerings and complex acquisitions during his 15-year tenure.

Notably, they acquired Conforama in 2011 for €1,207-million, a deal that boosted revenues and growth.

Joining forces with Christo Wiese in 2014, they embarked on an aggressive international expansion programme.

Jooste's sudden resignation was followed by an involved and protracted controversy concerning Steinhoff's accounting practices in its Central European business dating back to 2014.

The resulting uncertainty saw some €10 billion (R160 billion) of Steinhoff's value wiped off the markets in a matter of days, with continuing losses as the situation unfolded.

Insurmountable debts and claims would lead to Steinhoff's demise in 2023.

The ensuing 3,000 or 7,000 page PwC investigation directly linked Jooste and his CFO Ben la Grange to widespread fictitious transactions and accounting irregularities resulting in the Stellenbosch-headquartered company claiming R870 million from Jooste and R272 million from Ben la Grange in a summons lodged at the high court in Cape Town, which aimed to recoup salaries as well as bonuses.

2014 through 2017 saw acquisitions in South Africa, the United Kingdom and United States, which included Mattress Firm for $2.4bn, and Poundland for £597m in depressed retail conditions.

Despite being partially funded with Steinhoff shares, the very large premium paid for Mattress Firm prompted scrutiny by independent analysts.

The financial press initially ascribed the growth in Jooste's empire to either good luck or fortuitous timing, but the dissenting voices grew silent as Steinhoff raked in 36% growth in its 2014/2015 reporting year.

In March 2015 Steinhoff bought Pepkor from Wiese and his Brait holding company at R63 billion (then €4.8 billion), implying a very high p-e ratio of 37.

In October 2015 Jooste treated some Stellenbosch colleagues, friends and associates to a lavish excursion to the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham Stadium, which is estimated to have cost Steinhoff shareholders some R84 million.

On 4 December 2015 Steinhoff announced that Oldenburg authorities had carried out a 26 November raid on its European headquarters in Westerstede, Germany, in order to review its balance sheet treatment of transfers to subsidiaries or third parties.

Three days later, on 7 December, Steinhoff International Holdings transferred its primary listing from Johannesburg to Frankfurt, as, in Jooste's words, the majority of the firm's stores, customers and revenues were in Europe.

Though describing it as "an important day in the history of Steinhoff", Jooste chose not to leave Cape Town to attend the event, citing "neck pain" which precluded travelling.

He is an avid horse breeder, and in 2016 was reported to be one of Africa's richest people, worth $400 million.

The share price of their conglomerate reached a peak in March 2016, favouring their strategy of paying for dividends and acquisitions by sales of stock.

After a failed merger with Shoprite in December 2016, Jooste and Wiese raised new capital in 2017 to split off Pepkor's South African division, a move received with some skepticism, as it was seen as a way to pay off Steinhoff's South African debt.

The Pepkor acquisition also occurred without a cautionary announcement, raising suspicions at the FSB about possible insider trading leading up to the deal.

The split implied a 71% holding in new entity, Star, which managed more than 5,000 South African stores, more than any other retailer.

Steinhoff's share price peaked at R90 a share in 2016, making it the 15th largest company listed on the Johannesburg exchange.

Following a dispute with business partner Andreas Seifert, European regulators, journalists and law enforcement were alerted to the conglomerate's inflated profit and asset values, besides off-balance-sheet deals with third parties, causing Deloitte LLP to demand an internal investigation before the 2017 financials would be signed off.

Jooste resisted this demand and could not convince the Steinhoff board to appoint new auditors.

Jooste submitted his resignation on 5 December 2017, followed by Wiese 9 days later when a large investor, PIC, called for independent oversight.

Before the 2017 fallout in his business empire, he donated R10 million to the school's old-boys trust in his personal capacity.

The donation has since been ring-fenced pending possible claims.