South African supermarket chain Shoprite Holdings said on Thursday it will raise up to $1 billion by issuing new shares and convertible bonds to strenghten its balance sheet and help fund potential acquisitions.Africa's biggest retailer faces increasing competition from U.S. giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Wal-Mart last year bought a 51 percent stake in South African discounter Massmart , which is now moving into groceries, Shoprite's traditional stronghold.The market would be surprised that the cash-generative company was tapping shareholders for funds, said Quinton Ivan, an analyst at Coronation Fund Managers."Shoprite has virtually no debt on its balance sheet, one would have expected them to use use debt to fund their expansion plans," said Ivan.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart) operates retail stores. Shares of WMT fell by 0.02% or $-0.01/share to $60.55. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $48.31 and as high as $62.63. On average, 8801960 shares of WMT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1597608.
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