Retail & Manufacturing

VENTURES AFRICA – The South African new car market is resisting the economy’s downward drift with sales lifting 4.1 percent to 163 092 units during the first three months of this year, Standard Bank said on Tuesday. South Africa is facing tough economic conditions and the South African Reserve Bank is anticipating only a 2.7 [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Richard Burrows, chairman of JSE-listed British American Tobacco (BAT), on Thursday disclosed that the company has begun work on developing electronic cigarettes to make smoking safer. “Our subsidiary Nicoventures is preparing to launch its first nicotine inhalation product in the UK and through our recent acquisition of CN Creative, another British company, [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – South Africa Drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare, has concluded agreements to acquire Nestle South Africa’s infant nutritional products in Australia and southern African countries for $215 million. The acquisition will give Aspen the right to intellectual property licenses, net assets and shares in the Infant Nutrition (IN) businesses presently conducted by Pfizer which distributes [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Dangote Sugar is one of the most profitable arms of the huge conglomerate owned by Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. The company released its 2012 audited account posting a revenue of 106.8 billion naira ($668 million). Operational profit at the end of the period rose 49.5% to 16.3 billion naira ($100 [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – JSE-listed food retailer Famous Brands on Thursday said it had acquired 51 percent stake in the award-winning bakery and delicatessen brand, The Bread Basket, for an undisclosed sum. Famous Brands CEO Kevin Hedderwick said the acquisition was driven by the substantial supply chain opportunity that this venture proffered. “This transaction aligns with [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – SABMiller on Thursday reported full year lager volumes in Africa surged 6 percent on the back of additional capacity coming on stream and enhanced availability. In a trading update for the 12 months to March this year, the world’s second largest brewer said Zambia’s full year lager volume growth surged 12 percent. [...]

VENTURES AFRICA- World leading technology company, Hewlett-Packard Development Company (HP) is taking bold steps to combat illicit vendors counterfeiting its products by introducing an authentication technology that will allow customers determine if the ink and toner printer cartridges purchased are genuine. According to the company, one of the ways to identify fake HP Laser Jet [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Hardly a week after Paul Kinuthia sold his beauty business to beauty products multinational, L’Oreal, the Kenyan businessman has found immediate use for the billions he is set to gain from the multi-billion shilling deal. Kinuthia is now poised to drastically reduce the dominance of Procter & Gamble, another multinational, in the [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – South Africa’s wine and spirits marketer, Distell, on Monday said it acquired United Kingdom-based Scotch whisky producer Burn Stewart, for $244 million. Distell said this acquisition would provide it with entry into the highly-attractive and growing whisky market in the emerging and developed world. Last year, according to the Scotch Whisky Association [...]

VENTURES AFRICA- “In the next 5 years Nigeria may be one of the largest producers of steel in the world,” Chief Executive Officer of African Foundries Limited, Sanjay Kumar, has said. He made the statement at a media tour to the company’s steel mill at Ogijo, Ogun State adding that: “The potential is there for [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Nakumatt Holdings Ltd. on Friday said it wants to raise $50 million for its East African expansion. The Kenyan-based general retailer added that it is in discussions with a number of unidentified lenders who can possibly assist the company with the money for its planned capital outlay. It is believed that the company’s [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – General Motors, United States automobile giant, projects upon Africa’s growing middle class that by 2015, its annual vehicle sales in the continent will rise by 20 percent to two million units. According to Business Day, Managing Director GM Africa, Mario Spangenberg said General Motors, which recorded poor sales of only “6 million [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – EFG Hermes has dropped the value of Orascom Construction Industries’ (OCI) stocks from $45 to $35 per share due to the recent decrease in the company revenues. EFG Hermes is a bank based in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region specialising in investment banking and commercial banking operations. EFG Hermes [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – The world’s second biggest brewer, SABMiller, is poised to lift beer sales by 7-9 percent, thanks to its price-slashing strategy, using more local grains and cheaper packaging. On Wednesday, the brewer said it believed that on average the African continent (in terms of GDP) will grow 5-6 percent per annum. “We would [...]

VENTURES AFRICA – Pick ‘n Pay, the JSE-listed general retailer with operations in a number of African countries, on Wednesday said headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the year ended March this year would slip 36 percent. The company described this set of numbers as “poor performance” but the share price remained unchanged during the [...]