Taste Holdings, owner of Starbucks and Domino’s Pizza franchises in South Africa, said on Friday it was abandoning the food business and had already sold its 13 stores of the coffee chain to a consortium for 7 million rands ($464,000). The company said it was also in discussions around the sale of Domino’s and its two other food businesses, restaurant chain Maxi’s and The Fish & Chips Co, as part of a new strategy to become a solely luxury retail group. It had been trying to turn the Starbucks and Domino’s businesses around after putting their expansions on hold a year ago amid losses – making Taste one of a string of retail firms hurt by a troubled South African economy. In a statement, it said that after months of canvassing potential partners and capital providers, it had become evident that the money required to fund its plan could not be secured with the current business structure and market conditions.

The Kenyan government now says it has gone back to the drawing board and varied designs for the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Expressway in order to leave Uhuru Park intact. At the same time, it announced an Sh4.3 billion package for land compensation for the project whose works have begun. Infrastructure Principal Secretary Paul Maringa assured Kenyans that no part of the park will be touched. General Peter Mundinia explained, in what has been seen as a reaction to complaints by angry Kenyans on the original plan to excise 18 metres of the park to facilitate the building of the expressway. Prof Maringa stressed that not much will be affected in terms of land, saying there might be only a metre of the incursion.