Africa’s largest supermarket chain, South Africa’s Shoprite Holdings, has ceded ownership of its Nigerian subsidiary, Retail Supermarkets Nigeria Limited, to Ketron Investment Ltd, a company owned by a group of institutional investors led by the billionaire businessman Tayo Amusan owner of real estate company Persianas Investment Ltd. Tayo Amusan has accumulated an experience of more than 25 years in the trade-in Nigeria, in particular with the creation in 2004 of the first shopping center with international standards in Lagos, Palms, which will then be replicated in other cities such as Enugu, Kwara, Ota, and Ibadan.
The terms of the transaction include a franchise agreement, which secures the Nigerian retailer’s right to continue using the Shoprite brand. In addition, Ketron Investment Ltd will receive administrative and technical support from the Shoprite Group for an initial period of five years. Launched in Lagos in December 2005, Shoprite has 25 outlets in 11 states.
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed. A recent Bloomberg agency report valued Shoprite’s assets in Nigeria at N30 billion ($ 73 million).
For its part, Shoprite Holdings, which operates 2,843 supermarkets in 15 countries, serving 35 million customers in Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, says it wants to refocus on its domestic market. He has already left Kenya.
