The mystery shareholder in Beige who is now trying to get his money back after suspected fraud and theft was uncovered, is an entrepreneur who sold his property development business last year and bought a well-stocked game farm.
The small-time private investor, Chris Schutte, had converted the bulk of his investment portfolio into cash just prior to buying Beige shares. He then put most of the cash into Beige, seeing it as a fantastic opportunity to grow his investment in the short term. He bought a total of 237 900 shares for R1,2-million most of them at around the R7 mark in early 1998. After a profit warning in September 1999 he continued buying the shares to try and reduce his overall cost per share. His Beige shares, at a price of 49c on suspension, are worth R116 571. And the price will fluctuate once the share is reinstated for trade later this year a movement that’s not likely to be on the upside until the current board can prove to the market that the company has turned a corner and buried its tainted past. The net asset value of the company when it comes to market is unknown at this stage.
Schutte seems convinced that his route of taking legal action against Beige and former founders Syd Rogers, Dennis Heyman and former financial director Barry Duke is the right thing to do. He says the first goal is to get his money back.
The 38-year-old shareholder may be bubbling with anger inside, but to an outsider he comes across as quiet and shy. He spends at least half of his time on his game farm and the rest in Pretoria. Apart from the farm, his interest is animals he keeps horses and has a Boerbul named MacGyver who is rated number 18 in his breed in the country.
Schutte also spends some time reading; about the markets as well as biographical material about political and sporting figures.
“I’m a businessman really. I worked for 15 hours a day to build up my company,” he says of the recently sold property development business. Now he’s enjoying the fruits of that hard work. And fighting a legal battle that he wasn’t aware at the outset could be a landmark case in South Africa. Belinda Anderson