(AOF) – Walmart has announced a takeover bid of 6.4 billion rand (approximately $380 million) for the 47% stake it does not yet own in the loss-making South African retailer Massmart. In a press release published on Monday, August 29, Massmart said that Walmart has offered R62 per outstanding share to acquire 47% of the group’s capital, which notably owns the Makro, Game and Builders Warehouse brands.
In a statement to the media, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Massmart, Kuseni Dlamini said that a preliminary report carried out by an independent expert judged that “the terms and conditions of the offer are fair and reasonable”.
A Massmart restructuring plan was launched in 2019, including the sale of non-essential assets, the withdrawal of fresh food from Game stores and cost reductions across all of the group’s brands. But headwinds such as covid-19 and the social unrest recorded in 2021 have delayed its application.
Suffering from stiff competition in the South African market, Massmart saw its net losses widen in the first half of 2022, to 903.5 million rand ($53 million) from 358.5 million rand in the same period. in 2021.
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Urban transformation to enhance real estate heritage
Several initiatives are intended to densify the land around hypermarkets and/or to play on the mix of uses (commerce, office, housing and even urban logistics). Nhood, the company launched by the Mulliez family, has the mission of transforming into mixed neighborhoods sites belonging to the property companies of Auchan, Ceetrus and Nodi, and the real estate assets of other companies in the group. It will accelerate in this business of urban regeneration. The Mulliez family had planned to invest 1.8 billion euros between 2022 and 2026 in its real estate projects. This objective should soon be revised upwards. Carrefour, for its part, joined forces with the promoter Altarea in early 2021 to transform commercial areas into mixed neighborhoods.