Walmart set to buy out minority Massmart shareholders
US retail giant Walmart is set to buy out minority shareholders in the JSE-listed Massmart in South Africa.
Since its acquisition of Massmart in 2010, Walmart says that it has had to provide increasing levels of support across Massmart's businesses.
Businesses include Game, Makro and Builders Warehouse.
In a statement released on Monday, Walmart states that both stakeholders have reached an "in principle agreement" regarding the terms and conditions of a potential offer.
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The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the July unrest and the KwaZulu-Natal floods as some of the reasons that have been cited for Massmart's failure.
"The management led turnaround strategy launched in 2019 has faced many headwinds, primarily Covid- 19 but also the civil unrest in 2021 which resulted in a loss of operations and disruptions to supply chain on certain key inventory lines, flooding experienced in parts of the country, weak consumer demand for general merchandise and an increasingly competitive operating environment," reads the statement.
Discussions between Walmart and Massmart are at an "advanced stage".
The deal is set to be worth some R6 billion.
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