Choppies didn’t lose to competition. It lost to its own growth. Botswana’s retail champion expanded into 6 countries and 200+ stores. The controls at head office could not keep up. In 2018 the CEO allegedly used about P100 million, roughly R137 million, of company money for a personal stake in a rival. Result: suspended off the Botswana and Johannesburg exchanges for 2 years, with investors locked in. It only survived by retreating to the home market it understood. How much expansion is actually progress, and how much is just exposure? #investing #africanmarkets #botswana #governance #globalarbitrage