* H1 headline EPS at 280.8 cents vs 236.8 cents
* Sales at 41 billion rand vs 33.1 billion rand
* Shares little changed
(Adds CEO comment, updates shares)
By Tiisetso Motsoeneng
JOHANNESBURG, Feb 21 – Nigeria has the potential to
become as big a retail market for South Africa’s Shoprite
as its home base, the head of the supermarket chain
said on Tuesday, playing down concerns of rising poverty in
Africa’s most populous country.
“Several cities in Nigeria have populations of more than 8
million people. I can’t say all of them have the same spending
power, but Nigeria can support the same number of supermarkets
as South Africa,” Shoprite chief executive Whitey Basson told
Reuters in an interview.
“Even if you have 60 percent of the population living in
poverty, 40 percent of the Nigerian population is still bigger
than the South African population.”
Shoprite, which reported a 19 percent rise in first-half
earnings on Tuesday, runs about 950 supermarkets with 729 of
those in South Africa and two stores in Nigeria.
It plans to open 12 more stores outside of South Africa by
the end of June, including in the Nigerian cities of Illorin and
Abuja. It also plans to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Continued…
