WAL MART NEWS ON FASTMOVING

Johannesburg - South Africa is not benefiting from "global value chains", but Walmart's acquisition of Massmart Holdings offers some hope, Professor Stephen Gelb of the University of Johannesburg said on Tuesday. read more

Johannesburg - Lonrho's seafood division Oceanfresh is to supply hake fillets to Walmart stores in the US from October, it said on Monday. read more

Johannesburg - Government is not seeking to overturn competition regulators' approval of Walmart buying control of local retailer Massmart Holdings, but wants tougher conditions for the deal, the Business Day newspaper reported on Monday. read more

Retail group Massmart Holdings said on Monday it is expecting headline earnings per share of between 397c and 442.4c for the 52 weeks to June 26 2011. read more

Cape Town - The government is not considering a veto of the Walmart-Massmart merger, but believes public interest concerns make a review essential, economic development director-general Richard Levin told MPs on Thursday. read more

IN A move that will set alarm bells ringing in the minds of potential investors, the government is seeking to overturn the Competition Tribunal’s decision to allow Walmart’s takeover of Massmart . read more

In line with the revised parliamentary portfolio committee hearing rules announced by the Chairperson of the portfolio committee at the start of proceedings yesterday, Massmart CEO Grant Pattison’s submission before parliament today dealt primarily with the competition approval process, while highlighting some of the merger benefits.  read more

Cape Town - Walmart's South African operations plan to purchase R60bn worth of food locally and employ 15 000 people over the next five years, Massmart CEO Grant Pattison said on Wednesday.  read more

In line with Massmart and Walmart’s commitment to develop local suppliers, Massmart announced the appointment of Mncane Mthunzi, current CEO of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA), as Supplier Development Executive.  read more

LOCAL competition attorneys plan to use next week’s parliamentary hearing into Walmart’s takeover of Massmart as an opportunity to warn against meddling with the country’s antitrust legal framework. read more

South African discount chain store Massmart , majority controlled by US giant retailer Wal-Mart , is looking to take over fruit and vegetable supplier The Fruitspot, a spokesman said on Tuesday. read more

8 July 2011 - Nyon, Switzerland: UNI Global Union said today that the announcement from South African supermarket chain Pick n Pay that it plans to cut about 3137 jobs from its workforce is a clear sign of the “Walmart effect” it believes the world’s biggest retailer will have on South Africa as it prepares to enter the country.  read more

Johannesburg - After a stellar run in the months leading up to US retailer Walmart’s R16.5bn bid for Massmart, South African retailers are now seen offering little value to investors.  read more

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is going ahead with its R16-billion acquisition of Massmart’s operations in South Africa, over the next five years. “Its entry poses major challenges for new and existing retailers locally, but it also presents opportunities for growth in terms of new technologies, improving supply chain efficiencies, global outsourcing and lower food and consumer goods prices,” says John Thomson, Managing Director of Exhibition Management Services, organisers of the Southern African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX). read more

Walmart’s entry into South Africa is set to have a profound and far-reaching impact on Africa’s retail supply chain. What are some of the ‘must do’s’ that every retailer will have to action to survive? How can smaller retailers meet the challenge? What will be the benefits and disadvantages of Walmart’s presence in the South African market? How will that impact local retailers?  read more

Johannesburg - Trade union federation Cosatu said on Thursday it is determined to see labour brokers banned, and said organised labour is facing two new threats in the form of Walmart and the youth wage subsidy.  read more

Johannesburg - Walmart's acquisition of a majority stake in Massmart Holdings raised no competition concerns, but did raise some public interest issues, the Competition Tribunal said on Wednesday. read more

Johannesburg - The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers' Union (Saccawu) has filed an appeal against the already-approved takeover of local retailer Massmart Holdings by US retail giant Walmart. read more

Early start to the principle of “saving people money so they can live better”, a goal to create 15,000 new jobs and an additional R60 billion in food and FMCG procurement. read more

MARK Lamberti, chairman of Massmart, Grant Pattison, the CEO, and Guy Hayward, the CFO, cashed in shares worth R249-m as Walmart consummated its offer for 51% of the shares of Massmart. read more

The deal is done: Walmart now owns 51 percent of Massmart. The South African retail group that owns Makro, Game and Builders Warehouse will now begin integrating its business with the largest retailer in the world. read more

Washington - The US Supreme Court rejected a mammoth class-action lawsuit charging sex discrimination at Walmart stores on Monday in a ruling that could affect major cases in other industries.  read more

Following the completion of Walmart’s acquisition of a controlling interest in Massmart, the group has announced changes to the Massmart Board, effective 20 June 2011. read more

Johannesburg - The government's intervention in Walmart's bid for control of Massmart Holdings was "aggressive" and could have been handled better, Massmart's CEO told Business Report newspaper on Tuesday.  read more

Today is the last day for investors to buy Massmart shares if they want to participate in the scheme in which Walmart will buy 51 percent of the JSE-listed retail group. read more

Cape Town - Walmart was apparently not surprised to find, in its research on South Africa, that most South Africans did not know the company at all. read more

Fayetteville, Arkansas - Walmart announced a $15bn share repurchase and emphasised a recent dividend rise to hearten shareholders who have seen the stock lag as its US sales remain in a prolonged slump. read more

Rogers, Arkansas - As Walmart expands its international business, the company wants to bring ideas from Massmart Holdings [JSE:MSM] to other markets, company executives said on Thursday. read more

The Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) said on Thursday that it was deeply disappointed with the “pathetic” conditions agreed to by the Competition Tribunal in the 16.5 billion rand Wal-Mart/Massmart (MSM) deal. read more

Johannesburg - South Africa has little room to fight its own regulators over the approval of Walmart's R16.5bn bid for control of local retailer Massmart Holdings, lawyers said on Wednesday. read more

The Competition Tribunal today announced that the Walmart and Massmart merger can proceed to finality and has accepted the conditions proposed by Walmart and Massmart, which include the set-up of a R100 million supplier development fund, no merger-related retrenchments for a period of two years as well as continued recognition of SACCAWU for three years post the merger. read more

Johannesburg - South Africa is unlikely to impose local supply targets in its upcoming ruling on Walmart's R16.5bn bid for retailer Massmart Holdings because such demands could violate international trade rules. read more

Johannesburg - 19 May 2011: The South African Competition Tribunal hearings, which ended on Monday, offered enough proof to the South African Competition Commission that it reversed its earlier decision to recommend the Walmart deal for Massmart go through without conditions. read more

What follows is a summary of the proceedings on the 12th of May. read more

The latest developments in the Massmart/Walmart merger case. read more

With the third day of the Competition Tribunal Hearings into the Massmart Walmart merger underway, we have compiled a summary of the proceedings.  read more

This document contains a summary of the key issues in the witness statements of the merging parties and intervening parties, respectively. It also summarises the evidence in the witnesses’ statements of the merging parties and the intervening parties that should be heard by the Tribunal. read more

An activist group labelled the World Economic Forum (WEF) a platform for gangsters wanting to advance their own personal agendas. read more

Windhoek - A Namibian court has quashed a competition watchdog ruling that placed local conditions on Walmart's planned takeover of South African retailer Massmart Holdings [JSE:MSM], a newspaper said on Friday. read more

Chicago - The head of Wal-Mart expects the takeover of Massmart Holdings [JSE:MSM] to move ahead in next few weeks.  read more

Johannesburg - Global retail group Walmart said on Friday that it appreciated the statement by the Department of Trade and Industry's acting director general, Lionel October, in which he said that the government's recent actions do not signal opposition to foreign investment in SA. read more

Johannesburg – The government welcomes investment by foreign companies as long as the deals do not undermine "productive capacity", Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Wednesday.  read more

South Africa is not against foreign investment, Business Day reported on Tuesday, amid worries that its intervention in takeover hearings involving Wal-Mart and Kansai Paint could put off investors. read more

Johannesburg - South African shoppers could get access to low-priced clothing brands if the ­proposed merger between US retail ­giant Walmart and local retailer Massmart Holdings [JSE:MSM] goes ahead. read more

Yesterday the Massmart share price recovered much of the losses suffered on Tuesday afternoon following the announcement that the Competition Tribunal had postponed the hearings into the proposed sale of a majority stake to Wal-Mart Stores until May 9. read more

On February 7, US President Barack Obama took a short walk from the White House across Lafayette Square to the US Chamber of Commerce. On his arrival, he quipped to leaders of organised business that he was there "in the spirit of being more neighbourly". read more