Some still see hope and value

There is an information vacuum about the group, but this should change once new management is on board

It is no surprise that the collapse of the Steinhoff share price was an uncomfortable end to what was looking like a strong year for fund managers.

Steinhoff was very widely held in equity unit trusts; at a peak market cap of R290bn it was by far the largest retailer on the JSE, with strong rand hedge assets such as Conforama in France, Pep Europe and Poundland in the UK. The former CEO, Markus Jooste, was a regular visitor to the fund management houses. In his mock humility he would ask for “just a hamburger”.

According to research house Morningstar some of the largest holders were Old Mutual Top Companies (6.5% of the portfolio), Coronation Houseview Equity (6.4%) and Truffle General Equity (6.4%).

Nedgroup Value, which is run by Foord Asset Management, held 6.2%. Amex, through Nedgroup Rainmaker and Opportunity, also held large Steinhoff holdings.

The Truffle fund managers had to cancel their

Christmas holidays and start aggressively schmoozing clients.

They don’t have the benefit of slick business development managers in shiny suits who do that for a living.

Foord, which traditionally adopts a take-it-orleave-it approach, wrote an open letter to clients.

Founder Dave Foord says he was attracted to Steinhoff as it has no correlation to other Jse-listed shares.

The company bought into the share at an average price of less than R25/share, but allocated most of the share to Sa-only equity funds. Surprisingly, Foord says it still has confidence in the underlying management teams. He has not