Tayo Amusan: Meet The New Owner Of Shoprite As Retail Brand Exits Nigeria

 

Popular supermarket chain, Shoprite now has a new owner. Ketron Investment, a subsidiary of Persia as Investment Limited, on Tuesday announced it’s acquisition of the popular brand.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Tayo Amusan, chairman, Ketron Investment Limited, said that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission had approved a change of ownership.

“We look forward to building an even stronger company following our acquisition and are excited about the greater impact we will achieve to the benefit of our customers and other stakeholders now and well into the future.”

Shoprite which currently has 25 outlets in eight states across Nigeria was impacted by import restrictions,and forex fluctuations and as such had announced last year that it was quitting the Nigerian market.

Who is Tayo Amusan

Amusan is a businessman who has investment in the property development field. It is said that he owns some of the properties which houses stores of ShopRite. Whether this is what gave him an edge in the bidding process against the two other bidders for the controlling share of the supermarket chain is not clear.

Amusan founded Persia as in 1990 to develop luxury residential, retail, entertainment and hospitality centres as well as commercial developments in Nigeria.  In 2004, he launched The Palms. With the success of the store in Lagos, threw additional malls were opened in Enugu, Ota and Ibadan.

In the bid for the controlling stake if the retail outfit, the two other contenders were said to be a property development company but with links to a foreign country while the second was a South African company backed by South Africa’s pension fund.