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JOHANNESBURG, MAY 29 – South Africa’s second-largest listed
clothing retailer, Foschini Group, on Tuesday reported
a 24 percent rise in full-year profit and said it plans to open
140 new stores over the next year.
All but 16 of the new stores it will open in the next year
with be in South Africa.
The company also said it will be expanding into Mozambique
and Nigeria over the next 2 years – two fast-growing economies
fueled by commodity booms. The group operates in Namibia,
Botswana, Zambia, Lesotho and Swaziland.
The company has reaped rewards from decades-low interest
rates and above-inflation wage hikes that have spurred consumer
spending.
Foschini, which also sells home products and furniture, said
diluted headline earnings per share rose almost 24 percent to
766.1 cents, just above an estimate of 764 cents in a poll of 14
analysts by Thomson Reuters.
The company said retail turnover increased 17 percent to
11.63 billion rand.
South Africa retail sales grew 6.8 percent year-on-year in
March, the latest official data showed, beating a 6.6 percent
growth economists polled by Reuters had expected.
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
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