For almost a decade Massmart has been dishing up one disappointment after another to investors. There are signs that their patience will at last be rewarded, but these remain, at best, tentative .Massmart delivered some hope to investors in its half-year to June, lifting headline EPS (HEPS) a solid 14.2%, and an even better 19% if noncash foreign exchange adjustments are excluded. It was its strongest showing since becoming a 51%-owned subsidiary of Walmart in a US$2.54bn deal that was closed in June 2011."We could be seeing the benefits of [Guy] Hayward’s appointment as CEO [in April 2014] starting to come through," says independent retail analyst Syd Vianello. "I have always said he was put into the position by Walmart to fix the business."However, what is still needed is definitive evidence that Massmart is regaining the traction it began losing well before the advent of Walmart. HEPS had peaked three years earlier, in 2008, at 663c, and seven years on were still 22% lower at 516...
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