South Africa’s Shoprite rises most since 1997 after gains

Bloomberg

Shoprite Holdings Ltd rallied the most in 22 years after Africa’s largest food retailer said second-half sales climbed as it took market share.
Sales in the second half rose 6.5 percent as its core South African business returned to full operational strength, the Cape Town-based supermarket operator said in a statement.
The owner of chains including Checkers and U-Save introduced a new IT system and faced some industrial action in its first-half. In the second six months, product availability improved significantly and surpassed levels that it had before the new system was installed.
Shoprite has more than 2,500 stores throughout Africa, but a considerable majority are in South Africa. The retailer plans to open 88 stores in the next year.
Elsewhere in Africa, Shoprite is also seeing positive momentum after problems such as currency devaluations and shortages drove up costs. Shoprite says it’s still optimistic about the long-term food retail opportunity on the continent.
The stock rallied as much as 15 percent, the biggest intraday gain since October 29, 1997 and traded 9 percent higher in Johannesburg. Before the statement, the shares had dropped 32 percent this year.