Shoprite sees rising buyer confidence fuelling growth

Bloomberg

Shoprite Holdings Ltd. said rising consumer confidence in South Africa could fuel higher sales growth as the continent’s biggest food retailer increased the dividend and reported market share gains in its home country.
The half-year payout to shareholders will be raised by 14 percent, about in line with a year ago, Shoprite said.
That followed a six-month period in which the Cape Town-based company extended its lead over local rivals and positioned itself to build on that dominance.
“There is definitely a groundswell of optimism” in South Africa, CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said at a presentation in Cape Town.
“I am optimistic about the economy and that growth will come.”
The owner of chains including Shoprite and Checkers is adding stores at home and in sub-Saharan Africa, even as business conditions in many countries have
been subdued by weak commodity prices and a shortage of foreign exchange.
Shoprite’s biggest shareholder is Christo Wiese, the billionaire whose net worth has more than halved since the share price collapse of global retailer Steinhoff International Holdings NV in 2017.
Wiese had been in the process of combining Steinhoff’s African retail operations with Shoprite before the accounting scandal broke, only to abandon the plan as the value of his holdings crashed.