Christo Wiese sells Shoprite shares worth almost R1 billion 

Billionaire Christo Wiese sold R938.64 million worth of Shoprite shares on Wednesday, 10 October.

In a SENS announcement released this afternoon, Shoprite informed shareholders that Wiese sold 3.83 million ordinary shares at a price of R245 per share.

Wiese made the sale through a subsidiary of his company, Titan Premier Investments.

Wiese is one of South Africa’s most successful businessmen, known for his role in the growth of Shoprite and Pep – two of South Africa’s most valuable retailers.

Soon into his career in South Africa’s retail sector, Wiese became the chairman of Shoprite Holdings. 

He oversaw the company’s expansion from a group of eight supermarkets into a company that employs over 150,000 workers and has a market cap of R141.38 billion.

Prior to this transaction, Wiese was the largest individual shareholder in Shoprite with 10.67% and second only to the Government Employees Pension Fund.

His additional deferred shares gave Wiese voting rights worth 32.2%.

Wiese is currently a non-executive director of Shoprite.

Shoprite recently reported strong results for the year ended 2 July 2023. 

Group merchandise sales increased by 16.9% to R215.0 billion, while local merchandise sales increased by 17.8% to R173.6 billion.

Checkers and Checkers Hyper saw sales growth of 18.0%, while Checkers Sixty60 increased sales by 81.5%. 

This saw the company’s earnings significantly increase, as headline earnings per share rose 9.6% and basic earnings per share rose 10%. 

The retailer’s trading profit increased by 5.7% from R11.28 billion in 2022 to R11.92 billion.

During the year, Shoprite opened a net number of 340 stores. Of these, 94 stores were acquired from Massmart Holdings, of which 92 were integrated into Shoprite, Usave and Shoprite LiquorShop businesses.