Pick n Pay has raised R4.7 billion from investors through the sale of Boxer retail shares to fund further initiatives in its financial turnaround strategy.
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Boxer Retail’s share price fell by more than 5% after the conclusion of a bookbuild where its parent, Pick n Pay, raised R4.7 billion from the market by placing Boxer shares.
Boxer’s share price fell by 5.46% to R83.80 on Tuesday morning, although the price is still over 30% higher than what it traded at a year before. Similarly, Pick n Pay’s share price fell by 4.08% to R21.30 on Tuesday morning, a price that was 18.4% below the price a year before. The JSE Retail index was down 2.8% at the same time.
Pick n Pay Stores has tapped investors for R4.7bn so it can use the funds for its continuing financial turnaround, via an accelerated bookbuild of shares in its listed value retail subsidiary, Boxer Retail.
Pick n Pay said on Tuesday that an accelerated bookbuild of 12.5% of the total shares of Boxer, or 57.3 million Boxer shares, priced at R82 each, was successful.
Following the private placement, Pick n Pay would continue to hold about a 53.1% sharehlding inBoxer. The placement was a competitive, market-standard, arms-length bookbuild process involving qualifying investors.
The placement share price represented a 3.2% premium to the 30-day average share price of Boxer shares prior to the placement.
Pick n Pay’s management, explaining the reason for the share placement, said the group had made significant progress on multiple aspects of the group’s turnaround plan. Previous filings show that the listing of Boxer on November 28, 2024, was one of these initiatives.
In addition, Pick n Pay said its product offering has been “meaningfully enhanced, the execution of in-store retail principles has been improved, and the quality of the store estate has been upgraded”.
In addition, a new logistics agreement was set to deliver efficiencies over the coming years.
“In combination, these factors have driven improved like-for-like sales growth in Pick n Pay company-owned supermarkets, together with improved gross margin, and are set to deliver further benefits going forward,” the group management said.
Pick n Pay was also engaged in consultations with its labour partners to improve store operating efficiencies and costs.
“Building on this progress, the group remains focused on further strengthening the performance of the Pick n Pay segment's cash flow generation and returning it to profitability,” its management said.
It intends to deploy the net proceeds to support the implementation of its turnaround plan and growth strategy, while ensuring maximum financial flexibility over the medium term, management said.
“This will enable the group to continue executing on its strategic priorities, investing ahead of the plan, with a clear pathway to returning the core Pick n Pay Stores segment to cash flow break-even,” the group management said.
Boxer remained “a vital part of the group,” and a controlling stake in Boxer was being retained, and the group intended to participate in its “impressive growth trajectory, as it continues to be a key engine of value creation for the group and its investors,” they said.
According to the Trade Intelligence website, Boxer’s interim results for the 26 weeks to the end of August 2025 signaled strong momentum, building on its successful listing. Turnover growth of 13.9% was supported by a combination of “commendable” comparable store growth (5.3%) and sales from new stores (8.6%).
“This performance is particularly impressive as it was delivered amid 0.7% product deflation, indicating strong volume growth and market share gains. This was further supported by growth in customer numbers...Profitability remained resilient,” Trade Intelligence commented.
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