Companies
Nakumatt seeks to have orders on Shoprite takeover lifted
Monday April 21 2014Nakumatt Holdings is hoping to have a Tanzanian court order barring its takeover of Shoprite withdrawn this week, a top official said.
The bid by East Africa’s largest retailer to acquire three branches of South African-owned Shoprite supermarkets suffered a setback after the Tanzania Union of Industrial and Commercial Workers (Tuico) last month obtained an injunction suspending the takeover.
The court process resulted from Shoprite’s failure to pay terminal benefits to its employees.
READ: Nakumatt takeover of Shoprite stores delayed
Nakumatt Holdings head of strategy and operations confirmed the drawback but said he was optimistic the injunction would be withdrawn as early as this week. The takeover is also yet to be cleared by the Tanzania monopolies authority.
“I will be travelling to Dar es Salaam this week to rest the matter and will divulge more details later. We are expecting the injunction to be withdrawn this week and start operations,” Thiagarajan Ramamurthy told the Business Daily on phone from India.
Shoprite employees are demanding terminal benefits in line with a labour contract with their employer, reported the Citizen publication, quoting the Tuico assistant secretary general Linus Mapunda. Mr Mapunda could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Nakumatt was expected to take over the stores by April 1.