Sale a relief for Woolies

WOOLWORTHS has finalised its exit from its disastrous Masters hardware venture by completing the sale of its store sites.

The retail heavyweight said yesterday it had completed the sale of Hydrox – the joint venture company it set up with US group Lowe’s to run Masters – to the privately owned Home Investment Consortium for a headline sale price of $525 million.

Woolworths previously said the capital losses associated with the sale of Hydrox were about $1.8 billion. Shares in Woolworths close at $24.92.