BRIEF-Spar plans 2010 capex cut, sees lower growth

JOHANNESBURG Nov 11 (Reuters) - Spar (SPPJ.J), South Africa's no.3 grocery chain, said it would cut its capital expenditure to 234 million rand ($31.70 million) in 2010 and expects growth to slow due to lower inflation.

Spar, which plans to open a new store in Mozambique next month, on Wednesday posted a 19.5 percent increase in full-year headline EPS and declared a dividend of 200 cents.

The group's turnover rose 19.5 percent to 31.96 billion rand.

"We are not going to grow by 19.5 in the next year, inflation obviously is a key factor. We are going to have to learn to live with lower growth for this coming year," chief executive Wayne Hook told Reuters. "Capex will be a lot lower than last year. We will spend about 234 million rand for the new year. This year we spent about 440 million rand ... we (are) getting back to normal levels of capex as opposed to cutting back," Hook added."

(Reporting by Phakamisa Ndzamela; editing by Simon Jessop)