Steinhoff, Shoprite largest shareholder Wiese says to keep stake in both firms

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 20 (Reuters) - South African retail leading investor Christo Wiese will keep his stakes in both Steinhoff International and Shoprite despite calling off a deal to merge the two firms, he told Reuters on Monday.

Billionaire Wiese, a shareholder in both companies and the architect of the deal, and other investors including state-owned pension fund the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) could not agree on the value of a share exchange.

"We reckoned when we looked at everything, it might work for the two largest shareholders, but not necessarily for everyone," he told Reuters in an interview.

"There are quite a number of things that we noticed and that we will explore in due course to see whether there are things where we can get the two groups to work together, but for me it is impossible to sketch out the way forward." (Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia)