Gold Reef top executives opt to leave after merger with Tsogo Sun
Business Day
8 April 2010

Julius Baumann

Casino group Gold Reef Resorts ’ top executives, including CEO Steven Joffe, have elected not to stay on after the merger with rival Tsogo Sun, unsurprisingly handing control to Tsogo CEO Jabu Mabuza and chief financial officer Marcel von Aulock.

Joffe, financial director Jarrod Friedman, chief operating officer Christian Neuberger and human resources director Mudzudzanyi Sadiki have turned down positions in the enlarged group, opting instead to be paid out of their five- year contracts signed in 2008. The four will receive a combined R42,8m if the merger is completed in December .

While the Gold Reef executives have loads of experience in gaming, their decision to step down will prevent the two management teams from tripping over each other after the merger.

“We met with Jabu (Mabuza) and discussed various possibilities, but after a decade as CEO it would be hard to have any other position in the company,” Joffe said yesterday.

Joffe and Friedman have been with Gold Reef since 2000 and have built it up into a gaming group worth R5bn, managing seven casinos across the country. The four executives will have to serve a one-year restraint of trade on completion of the deal.

Joffe said it was too early to think about what lay beyond the end of the year. “For the past 12 years my attention has been on Gold Reef and for the next six to nine months I will continue to focus on managing the company and ensuring that the merger wins shareholder approval and meets all the regulatory requirements.”

Joffe, who holds about 6-million shares in the company, said he would remain invested in the new company.

Gold Reef said last week the groups would seek shareholder approval of the deal at a meeting on April 26. The companies announced in February that they had agreed on a R21bn merger.

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