Nkmatt has been having cash-flow problems compounded by the loss of Nkmatt Downtown which was their most profitable and most liquid. As a result,they had their credit rating withdrawn - effectively ending any hopes of listing IMHO
http://www.globalratings...2ae16f597a1295af617ee2e
they've also had to supplement working capital by issuing relatively expensive commercial paper and the last time I was there,weren't redeeming shopper points.... also what happened to FIT?
However,the business model (from an ops P.O.V) is likely not the problem and methinks they went the Uchmi way and 'over-expanded'
While it's true that Tskys & Ukwla cater to the 'lower' end of the market - the 'EQTY Bank model' as I like to call it is also their achilles heel vis a vis STDCH.
One 'independent analyst' has been so bold as to state that EQTY is correlated to GDP.....I might as well claim that the same holds for Tskys & Ukwla. The 'lower' end of the market exhibits very high income elasticity and when the economy suffers and/or inflation spirals this end of the market takes the biggest hit & is bound to change or impact their shopping trends.
Also,looking at it from an Average Revenue per Shopper point of view,I have no doubt that this is higher at Nkmatt than Tskys & Ukwla. (Possibly a multiple thereof)
PS
As the self-proclaimed and yet-to-be-coronated king of arbitrage,I,some time back,visited either divide of the shopping space hunting for price differentials. Some of you may be surprised to note that for some products,NKmatt was actually cheaper than Tskys or Ukwla albeit by only one or two shillings (not worth search costs) while having a more diverse product range.
It often happens that a TRADER carries out a deep and complicated calculation,but fails to spot something elementary right at the first move!