Shoprite Unveils Plan To Exit Nigeria
South Africa’s grocery retailer, ShopRite has unveiled plans to initiate a formal process to consider the potential sale of all, or a majority stake in Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Shoprite International Limited.
The decision is coming about 15 years after it started operations in the country.
The plan was contained in a trading update filed at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday, August 3.
According to the trading update, the company said it had been approached by potential investors willing to take over its Nigerian operations adding that it was considering an outright sale of its operation or selling a majority stake in its Nigerian subsidiary.
International supermarkets excluding Nigeria contributed 11.6 per cent to group sales and reported 1.4 per cent decline in sales from 2018 while South African operations contributed 78 per cent of overall sales and saw 8.7 per cent rise for the year.
“Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited may be classified as a discontinued operation when Shoprite reports its results for the year.”
Shoprite which promised to provide further updates to the market at the appropriate time opened its first store in Lagos in December 2005.