Last roll of the dice as big-box retailer Edcon eases debt burden
Turnaround plan must steal march on its rivals — fast
FOR visual appeal, the mannequin displays of four of the same off-theshoulder shirts that welcome you to Edgardale — the grey and ageing headquarters of struggling retail giant Edcon — don’t score highly.
Rather, they stand as evidence of a retailer in the throes of an identity crisis as it tries to reclaim its mantle as the pre-eminent fashion player.
The vacant desks in the open- plan office tell the story of a company that has for the better part of a decade struggled to keep pace with the South African consumer.
Saddled with a debt burden caused by a private equity buyout in 2007, Edcon, the owner of Edgars, Jet, Red Square and homeware retailer Boardmans, hasn’t been able to invest at the rate necessary to keep abreast of trends, never mind lead.
This week’s resolution of that debt burden as its major creditors became shareholders, resulting in a reduction of its debt load to R6-billion from a suffocating R26.7-billion, is perhaps the last chance for the company to regain lost ground.
Bernie Brookes, who has been Edcon CEO for a year, said US sneaker firm Converse had refused to supply its products for over 12 months because of concerns over the debt.
Replacing US-based Bain Capital as the largest shareholder of the retailer is Franklin Templeton, whose Singapore-based executive chairman, Mark Mobius, 80, has been a global champion of the emerging market investment case for almost three decades. Franklin Templeton did not want to comment directly on the deal that observers are hoping will allow Edcon to better compete with its local rivals such as Mr Price and the international players streaming into the country, but told Business Times that market valuations for African corporations stood below those of their peers in developed markets.
“We hold a positive long-term view on all African markets as they have the potential for strong economic growth, which we believe produces an environment favourable to corporate profitability and earnings growth,” he said.
Franklin Templeton, Harvard Pension Fund, Barclays Africa and FirstRand have become the biggest shareholders in the group, and to heal the wounds inflicted by Bain’s purchase of the retailer for R25-billion nine years ago have committed to fund up to an additional R2.8-billion to shore up the group’s liquidity position.
Bain walks away from the deal — at the time the biggest in South Africa’s corporate history — with nothing, except for some hard lessons.
Although investors have grown weary of the “Africa rising” narrative, because of low commodity prices, growth rates on the continent are still higher than in Europe and the US.
Despite better growth prospects in Africa, taking a bet on the future of a big-box fashion retailer like Edcon isn’t as sure in the fast-evolving retail market.
Andreas Inderst, a London-based senior equity analyst at Macquarie, said the global state of big-box retailing had been negatively affected by the slow response to transformation.
“Brands are becoming more selective, reducing the best product allocations to these retailers and expanding their directly operated store network. As the product portfolio is getting less differentiated for those retailers, consumers are voting with their feet, leading to slower traffic,” said Inderst.
“A negative, vicious cycle kicks in, with less traffic leading to less access to exclusive products and brands, less negotiation power and pressure on margins and in turn to less financial flexibility to reinvest in the network,” he said.
Although the digital threat is real and immediate to the fortunes of bigbox retailers, Edcon has to first stop bleeding market share to its rivals, while still reducing its store footprint.
“There was only one of two alternatives for this business — either . . . to go into business rescue or for our creditors to take a sizable and significant debt-to-equity which involves taking a reduction on the amount of money that was owed,” Brookes said.
“We reached an absolutely catastrophic situation in March when we were unable to pay our bills . . . a great portion of our suppliers have stopped giving us stock or give us smaller quantities of stock. Many refuse to supply us with new products and new lines.”
There is already speculation that former Woolworths MD Andrew Jennings will join the retailer and head a new board. Jennings left the Cape Town-based retailer in 2006, moving on to work as an adviser to Australia- SLUMP: Edgars owner Edcon hasn’t invested sufficiently to keep up with fashion trends based retailer Myer, where Brookes was formerly CEO.
The success of any potential turnaround at Edcon would depend on the extent to which it affected its rivals — which would depend on Edcon’s plans and on how quickly it could achieve them, said Victor Dima, an equity analyst at Dubai-based Arqaam Capital Markets.
Most likely to be affected are Mr Price, Truworths, TFG and Woolworths, which had benefited from the loss of Edcon’s market share.
All African markets have the potential for strong growth Our suppliers have stopped giving us stock or give smaller quantities