Shoprite Holdings Limited, South Africa’s largest food retailer, said sales growth accelerated as the consumer spending environment improved.
Revenue advanced 11.4 per cent in the six months through June, compared with 9.7 per cent in the first half of the fiscal year, the Cape Town-based company said in a statement. Full-year sales growth on a like-for-like basis was 5.1 per cent.
“This confirms the sales momentum is accelerating,” BPI Capital Africa analyst Luis Colaco said by phone from Cape Town. “Growth on a like-for-like basis is good, that is positive.”
Revenue from outside South Africa, which accounts for almost a fifth of Shoprite sales, increased by 27 per cent, little changed on the previous year.
Shoprite closed 3 per cent higher, the biggest gain in more than three months, at 163.05 rand in Johannesburg. That pared the year’s decline to 0.6 per cent, valuing the company at 93.4 billion rand ($8.74 billion).
South African retail-sales growth was 1.8 per cent in April, accelerating from a revised 0.8 per cent gain in March. The country’s inflation in May climbed to 6.6 per cent, exceeding the central bank’s 3 per cent to 6 per cent target band for a second month.
Massmart Holdings Limited, controlled by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, said July 10 that sales growth rallied during the first half of 2014 as consumers spent more on building supplies amid a rise in the inflation rate.
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