Johannesburg – The founder of Tekkie Town Braam van Huyssteen and the former owners and management, said on Friday that the dropping of litigation against Steinhoff International would enable them to significantly ramp up the footwear retail business.
Steinhoff’s share price rose to 9.8% to R3.46 on the JSE on Friday morning following its announcement that it had reached an agreement with two major detractors of Steinhoff’s R25-billion litigation settlement proposal, the former owners of Tekkie Town and Trevo Capital, following the collapse of the international retail group due to accounting fraud in 2017.
The company’s settlement with the Steinhoff Group involves the claimants being paid R500-million and receiving 29.5 million Pepkor Holdings shares. Pepkor has some 3.7 million shares in issue.
Former Tekkie Town chief executive Bernard Mostert said there were a number of reasons behind the agreement with Steinhoff and its subsidiaries, including Pepkor.
The reason was that they were enjoying great momentum in their new business.
“An increased focus coupled with the proceeds of the settlement, and without the distraction of litigation, will enable us to amplify that momentum,” he said.
He said that in little less than three years, they had grown from zero stores to more than 160 stores and 800 wholesale account.
“With the litigation handbrake dropped, we can ramp up this business tremendously and significantly add to the almost 1000 jobs we have created since August 2018,” added Mostert.
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