Your daily market overview delivered in bite-sized bullets:

• Sirius Real Estate released results for the year ended March 2022. The company has performed well yet again, as the logistics and industrial property sector has been a great place to play. The dividend has increased by 16.1%. Despite this, the share price has lost around 31% of its value this year. In this feature article, I explain what happened.

• Coal mining group Thungela has generated incredible returns over the past year, having been unbundled from Anglo American as the unloved ESG-offending stepchild. The company has released a trading statement and pre-close update, which set a few tongues wagging about the potential dividend in August. Here’s the catch though: Thungela needs Transnet to achieve a meaningful improvement in its freight rail performance. Read all about it here.

• Aveng released a cautionary announcement regarding the potential disposal of Trident Steel to a “credible buyer” – and really, that’s the best kind of buyer. After Aveng disposed of assets worth over R1 billion since 2018, Trident Steel is the last remaining asset that needs to be sold under the strategy to repair the group balance sheet. The proceeds are expected to exceed Trident Steel’s net asset value and would be used to settle remaining external debt in South Africa. Of course, a deal is a deal when the money lands in the bank. There are still several hurdles to get over in this potential transaction, which is why detailed terms haven’t been announced yet. The share price closed 8.7% higher on the day.

• Equites Property Fund is in the process of selling land to Lidl Great Britain and land and turnkey developments to Arrow Capital Partners. This requires the approval of the local council for a warehouse development on the properties. A committee of the council has refused the application based on landscape and visual impact implications. Equites is appealing the decision and expects a decision in late 2022 or early 2023. The transaction agreements have a long-stop date of 31 December 2023, as delays are not uncommon. This will not impact Equites’ guidance for distributions per share but it would impact the net asset value per share uplift and the timing of development profits.

• Sibanye-Stillwater has signed a three-year wage agreement for the South African gold operations, bringing the strike to an end. The average annual increase is 6.3% over three years, though it varies depending on the category of employees. There’s also a “hardship allowance” of R3,000 to help workers with the financial impact of the strike. R1,200 is payable in cash and up to R1,800 will be used to reduce employee loans owed to the company, as Sibanye continued with medical aid contributions and risk benefits during the strike. The operational start-up after the strike will be phased over 2 – 3 months to ensure safety in operations.

• Novus Holdings has released a trading statement which shows a major swing into the green. The headline loss per share in the comparable period of 5.40 cents is a distant memory, with headline earnings per share (HEPS) of between 52.61 and 53.69 cents in the year ended March 2022. In separate news, Novus has also confirmed it is part of a consortium that has won the contract from the Department of Basic Education to print, store, package and distribute workbooks for three years, with an option to renew for a further two years. Importantly, Novus notes that this is a useful offset for macroeconomic conditions that will hurt the business in 2023. Paper price increases, high logistics costs and general availability of paper are concerns for the group.

• Afine Investments is a specialist REIT focusing on ownership of petrol stations. After listing recently, the company has now announced an acquisition of two properties. The properties are partially owned by a trust linked to the CEO of Afine, so this is a related party transaction under JSE Listings Requirements. Such deals have higher compliance hurdles in order to protect minority shareholders. The properties would be paid for with a combination of cash and shares. The properties are worth R59.6 million collectively. AcaciaCap has been appointed to opine on whether the transaction is fair to shareholders of Afine. Shareholder approval is only needed if the independent expert determines that the terms are unfair.

• Gemfields has been on an incredible run recently. With operations in countries like Mozambique, there’s always the risk of something going wrong. There’s been another insurgency in Mozambique, this time around 65kms away from Gemfields’ ruby mining operations. Previously, the activity was more than 150kms away. The attacks included the killing of two employees at a graphite project owned by Australian company Triton Minerals. For now, the ruby operations are unaffected. This is a concerning piece of news.

• Kore Potash has issued shares to a service provider in lieu of fees payable under a technical services agreement. The service provider is Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. a name that just rolls off the tongue. That party has increased its shareholding in Kore Potash from 14.64% to 15.74% as a result of the share issuance.

• Chrometco Limited has released a cautionary announcement regarding “circumstances relating to a material subsidiary which are being assessed” – there’s nothing worse than a cautionary with no detailed information or even an idea of whether it is positive or negative news.

• The mandatory offer by Raubex for the shares of Bauba Resources has closed. The offer price was R0.42 per share. The offer was accepted by holders of 10.62% of total shares in issue and 39.46% of total shares held by minority shareholders, which is a better measure of the results of the offer.

• Castleview Property Fund’s dividend reinvestment alternative led to an increase in issued shares of nearly 10%. The fund retained R16.7 million that would otherwise have been paid out to shareholders.

• Directors of Santova subsidiaries have bought and sold shares in Santova recently. The market still sees this as a positive. The old adage is this: directors may sell for many reasons, but they only buy for one reason. This is why I write about every share purchase by directors and only the sales that seem to be quite large.

• A non-executive director of Jubilee Metals has sold around R4.4 million worth of shares in the company.

• The Chief Compliance Officer of Choppies Enterprises has bought shares in the group worth around R670k.

• An executive director of construction group WBHO has acquired shares in the company worth nearly R1.4 million.

• Associates of directors of RFG Holdings have acquired shares worth nearly R850k.