Nigerian food delivery service, Chowdeck has raised US$2,5 million in seed funding. Investors included Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, FounderX Ventures, HoaQ Fund, Levare Ventures, True Culture Funds, Haleakala Ventures, Simon Borrero, Juan Pablo Ortega, Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi.
Ethiopian plastic upcycling startup, Kubik, has raised US$1,9 million in a seed extension round. This latest funding was secured from African Renaissance Partners, Endgame Capital and King Philanthropies. Kubik turns hard-to-recycle plastic waste into low-cost, low-carbon, interlocking building materials and is looking at pan-African growth in 2025.
Specialist agriculture investor AgDevCo has taken a significant minority stake in Agris, the agricultural division of early-stage investment group Maris. Agris has three operating companies – Evergreen Fresh, Evergreen Herbs and Evergreen Avocados. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Australian Bitcoin exchange Igot, has acquired Kenyan crypto exchange and remittance gateway, TagPesa for an undisclosed sum. The company has also been granted access to M-Pesa, giving users the ability to cash out directly from the mobile payment system.
Renda, a Nigerian order fulfilment specialist that provides end-to-end fulfilments solutions for businesses across Africa, has secured US$1,9 million in debt and equity pre-seed funding. Ingressive Capital, Techstars Toronto, Founders Factory Africa, Magic Fund, Golden Palm Investments, Reflect Ventures, and Vastly Valuable Ventures provided the $1,3 million in equity funding, while the debt funding investment of $600,000 was provided by Founders Factory Africa and SeedFi.
Kenyan travel booking platform, BuuPass has announced the acquisition of Nigerian and South African based, QuickBus. Financial terms were not disclosed. BuuPass, backed by investors such as Founders Factory Africa and FrontEnd Ventures, raised US$1,3 million in 2023 and is looking to expand into other African countries.
Ignite Power has announced the acquisition of West African Distributed Renewable Energy solutions provider, Oolu. Headquartered in Senegal, Oolu is a Y Combinator accelerator graduate that operates across West Africa. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In the savings and investment environment, Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) stand out as both a beacon of potential and a puzzle of misconceptions.
Introduced in 2015 with the noble aim of fostering long-term savings habits among South Africans, TFSAs have sparked debate about their effectiveness and strategic positioning. A common misconception is that TFSAs are only for short-term savings due to their accessibility. However, the true power of TFSAs lies in their potential for tax-free growth over the long-term.
Nomzamo Manqele, an astute investment specialist and wealth advisor at Fedgroup, makes a pertinent point by saying: “Access to funds in long-term savings products are usually restricted until retirement age, but with TFSAs, people have access to their savings within seven days. This might create an impression that TFSAs are short-term savings products when in fact, they should be grouped with long-term savings.”
The devil is in the detail
Come to think of it, the performance and trajectory of a TFSA hinges on its underlying structure. Herein lies both the beauty and the challenge; different providers offer distinct approaches, resulting in varying returns. Fedgroup’s TFSA, for instance, boasts an impressive 11% effective annual return in 2023, thanks to its strategic inclusion of assets with greater stability, which offer more certainty amidst market volatility. In other words, we found the sweet spot between low fixed returns offered by banks versus TFSAs linked to volatile markets. Meaning that our TFSA can unlock more value over-and-above the tax-free benefit.
Yet, beyond the allure of returns lies the essential consideration of fees. A zero-fee approach, as championed by Fedgroup underscores the commitment to maximise long-term growth potential, transcending the limitations posed by inflation.
Spot the difference
But, as with all regulated financial products, TFSAs have specific rules. The total annual contribution during a tax year may not exceed R36 000 and the total lifetime contribution may not be more than R500 000. The beauty of this product is that all interest or returns earned is tax free! Regular savings accounts have different rules with the first R23 800 (R34 500 if you are over 65) interest earned, per annum, exempt from tax. As soon as the amounts increase, you will be taxed.
When looking at the above comparison, regular savings accounts might seem like the way to go because you are allowed to invest a larger amount per year compared to a TFSA, but if you look a little closer, you might change your mind.
Yes, at first a regular savings account might look more attractive because of the higher amount allowed per annum, which could earn more interest. And let’s assume your bank offers an interest rate of 6.5% on your regular savings, and inflation stands at 5.1%, it means your real return is only 1.4%. Not a great long-term savings solution. In sharp contrast, with a TFSA from Fedgroup you could earn 11% effective annual return, meaning if inflation stands at 5.1%, your real returns could be 5.9%; much higher compared to a regular savings account. And it’s all tax free over the long-term! Then, add the gift that keeps on giving – compound interest on top of this – also tax free.
If you save R36 000 per year in a TFSA, it will take almost 14 years to reach your lifetime limit of R500 000. So, start saving today and imagine the interest you could earn, not to mention compound interest, to be enjoyed when you eventually withdraw these funds during retirement. Excellent reasons why a TFSA should be grouped with your long-term investment products.
Don’t sell yourself short
Nomzamo cautions against short-term withdrawals from your TFSA since it reduces the lifetime limit allowance of R500 000 and reminds of the long-term benefits at stake. By exercising patience and foresight, you can harness the full potential of TFSAs, bolstering your retirement nest egg in the process.
She concludes by saying, “Don’t sell yourself short by underestimating the value that TFSAs hold. Embrace the journey, seize the opportunities, and let your TFSA pave the way to a brighter financial future.”
About Fedgroup
Established in 1990, as a specialist South African financial services provider, Fedgroup has carved a niche for itself by doing things differently. Their unique approach prioritises people and long-term sustainability ahead of short-term profit. With over R20 billion in assets under management, the Group offers various financial products including investments, long-term insurance, lending, and fiduciary services.
As innovators in the impact investment space, Fedgroup has the experience and expertise to confidently guide investment decisions by incorporating stable and profitable alternative investment offerings into investment portfolios. With specific reference to their Impact Farming offering, the Group boasts more than seven years of experience within the renewable space, managing multiple agricultural and impact investment sites and technology-empowered companies to ensure the smooth and continued operations of projects. Fedgroup remains committed to age-old values of honesty, integrity, dignity, and people first and embraces a strong governance framework that is supported by people, processes, and technology. 4
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Capital & Regional heading in the right direction (JSE: CRP)
Remember, these growth rates are in hard currency
Capital & Regional is a UK-focused REIT that holds a portfolio of community shopping centres. The company has released results for the year ended December 2023.
The good news is that like-for-like rental income increased 5%, helping to drive 9.7% growth in adjusted earnings per share. The further good news is that valuations moved higher, with a positive 2.6% increase. On top of this happy news, the fund acquired the Gyle shopping centre back in September in what looked like a very well-priced deal at a net initial yield of 13.5%. They expect that to rebase to 12%, which means the value of that property has significant upside potential.
The final dividend is up 7.3%, with the full-year dividend coming in 8.6% higher than the previous year.
Moving to the balance sheet, the debt maturity profile is 4.1 years with an average cost of debt of 4.25%. Around 80% is hedged for the next three years. Net loan to value has increased from 40.6% to 43.6%.
Glencore is producing in line with guidance (JSE: GLN)
It’s still early days for this financial year, though
Glencore has released its production report for the first quarter of the new financial year, with the key takeout being that guidance for the full year is unchanged.
As always with these large mining groups, there were some significant moves in individual commodities. For example, cobalt production fell 37% and nickel was up 14%. Despite some of the larger moves, guidance for the full year is still in line with previous guidance across every commodity that Glencore produces.
The all-important profitability metric is Marketing Adjusted EBIT, which is expected to be $3.0 to $3.5 billion this year. That’s ahead of the long-term range of $2.2 – $3.2 billion per year.
Harmony is on track for an excellent year (JSE: HAR)
With nine months under its belt, the company has upgraded full-year guidance
Harmony Gold is loving life at the moment, with the average rand gold price received up by 17% year-on-year for the nine months ended March 2024. Of course, the price is only one component for returns. Mines still need to get the stuff out of the ground, with Harmony taking advantage of the improved gold price by increasing gold production by 10%.
And to add to the happiness, there’s a 2% decrease in group all-in sustaining costs (AISC). To give you a sense of margins, AISC came in at R877,965/kg and the average gold price received was R1,162,048/kg.
Group operating free cash flow increased by a whopping 171%, leading to a net cash position of over R1.5 billion vs. R74 million at the end of the interim period. How’s that for a move over three months?
It’s also worth noting that uranium is a by-product of the gold extraction process at Moab Khotsong. Production increased by 28% and the average uranium price increased by 43% in dollars. Uranium revenue for the nine months was R435 million. This is very small compared to the R42.4 billion from gold over the same period, but I still found it interesting.
For the full year, production guidance has been increased to 1.55 million ounces (from 1.38 – 1.48 million ounces) and AISC is down to R920,000/kg from previous guidance of R975,000/kg. As the cherry on top, capital expenditure guidance is down to R8.6 billion from R9.5 billion.
The cash is literally raining down on Harmony, which is why the share price chart looks like this:
Volumes are up at Impala, but read carefully (JSE: IMP)
Things are tough and the group is embarking on a retrenchment programme
Impala Platinum has released a quarterly production report for the three months to March. The PGM market is very tough at the moment, where even an uptick in production isn’t enough.
Mining houses need to cut costs in response to pressure on PGM prices, otherwise they will run themselves into the ground where they found the stuff in the first place!
With nine months of the financial year now behind them, Impala Platinum can report a 15% increase in total 6E group refined and saleable production. Sales volumes were only up by 11%, though.
Deep inside the report, you’ll find a very important comment that like-for-like refined 6E production (i.e. excluding Impala Bafokeng) actually fell by 6% for the quarter (not the nine months), so the deal to acquire Royal Bafokeng has really flattered these production numbers. The nine-month view is like-for-like refined 6E production up by 1%, so the cadence is worrying i.e. the latest quarter looks worse than the preceding quarters.
The group is at least on track to meet guided parameters for the full year, so there’s no negative or positive surprise there.
From a profitability perspective, the group is facing margin pressure and has commenced a s189 process that could affect 9% of its workforce.
MTN Nigeria goes from bad to worse (JSE: MTN)
Equity is a dish best served positive – and MTN Nigeria only has a negative story to tell
MTN is having a rough time in Nigeria and it seems to only be getting worse. Although total subscribers at MTN Nigeria grew 1.3% in the quarter ended March and service revenue increased by what looks like a very healthy 32%, EBITDA was down by 1.9%. This means huge EBITDA margin contraction by 13.9 percentage points to 39.4%.
It gets a lot worse further down the income statement, with profit after tax down 57.8% even if we adjust for net forex losses. If those losses are included, the net losses are huge and equity on the balance sheet is now negative.
In this trainwreck of a result, even free cash flow went the wrong way. It dropped 35.6%, not least of all because capital expenditure increased by 49.1%.
The macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria are making life extremely difficult, with the company noting that regulated tariff increases will be required to restore profitability. What they really need to do is show the balance sheet some love, which means lower capex and thus reduced dollar exposure, as the letters of credit that drive such severe forex losses are linked to capex. There are other initiatives underway related to profitability, including a review of tower lease contracts.
This gives you a good idea of how significant the forex losses are vs. EBITDA:
Operational setbacks have been the story of the past year
Early-stage energy companies consume a lot of cash on their journeys. This is simply how it is, as vast capex is needed up-front to create an asset of value. There are far too many Renergen shareholders who were naïve about this, buying into the hype during the pandemic. On top of this, there have been negative surprises from operational issues that have put further dark clouds on the share price:
Driven by higher costs as well as maintenance at the LNG plant for four months, the loss attributable to ordinary shareholders increased from R26.7 million to R110.2 million. That’s a big number. Depreciation expenses were also a major part of the losses (just under R20 million), so there will be ongoing pressure on the income statement.
Phase 2 of the helium side of the business is where the real value lies and commercial operation is expected during the 2027 calendar year. Of course, a much happier story around phase 1 would go a long way towards supporting the share price.
The income statement doesn’t look great, but the efforts to build up the balance sheet in preparation for growth have been effective. There have been various funding initiatives in the past year, ranging from equity through to debt. The net asset value per share has moved higher thanks to equity injections.
We can’t say with much certainty what the next year will hold for Renergen. I’m quite sure that it won’t be boring, though!
Core earnings at WeBuyCars move higher (JSE: WBC)
The share price hasn’t seen much action post-IPO
WeBuyCars has recently incurred significant once-off costs related to the separate listing. This is why the company is reporting core HEPS as well as HEPS, with the two metrics showing completely different numbers.
It’s silly to judge the performance of the business on numbers that include the costs of the listing, or the non-cash charges related to the call options held over shares that subsequently fell away. I’m therefore ignoring HEPS, which shows a drop from positive 20 cents to a loss of between 19.7 cents and 21.7 cents for the six months to March 2024.
Instead, core HEPS is where I’m focused. That number shows an increase of 24% to 29%, coming in at between 117.5 cents and 122.3 cents. Higher volumes and average selling prices helped here, as did ongoing benefits of economies of scale.
The market didn’t give much of a response to this, with the stock trading slightly below the level at which it separately listed.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
Des de Beer is back in action, buying R1.1 million worth of shares in Lighthouse Properties (JSE: LTE)
Various entities associated with a director of Sea Harvest (JSE: SHG) bought shares in the company worth just under R200k.
MC Mining (JSE: MCZ) released a quarterly activities report that obviously comes against the backdrop of the Goldway bid. As at 23 April, acceptances of Goldway’s bid by shareholders took that consortium to a 93.05% shareholding in MC Mining. For what it’s worth, Uitkomst achieved a 14% increase in run of mine coal for the quarter, with revenue per tonne also up by 14% in dollars. At the Makhado project, funding and development were suspended during the Goldway process and are expected to be reinitiated now that the process is complete. Separately, the company announced that shareholder Dendocept has given notice to the board of an intention to remove Andrew Mifflin as a director of the company.
Southern Palladium (JSE: SDL) released a quarterly activities report for the three months to March. This is still a very early stage opportunity, with the company currently busy with a drill programme that is due to be completed in the third quarter of this year. The project’s estimated post-tax internal rate of return is 21%. From what I can see, that’s a dollar-based return.
Afrimat’s (JSE: AFT) acquisition of Glenover Phosphate has become unconditional, with approval from the MPRDA having already been received and 30 June 2023 financial statements and related company documentation now completed. In the same announcement, Afrimat noted that the Lafarge acquisition closed on 22 April and integration has commenced, with a plan to complete it within 12 months.
NEPI Rockcastle (JSE: NRP) has increased its green loan facility syndicated by the International Finance Corporation. The facility is now €58 million higher at €445 million. The facility is designed to provide for an upcoming bond maturity in November 2024, covering 89% of that bond’s principal amount in its enlarged form. The “green” element of the facility is linked to energy efficiency and emission factors.
Kibo Energy (JSE: KBO) subsidiary Mast Energy Developments released results for the year ended December 2023. Despite loads of commentary about the different projects and where they are in the development process, the reality is that MED lost £3.5 million for the year after losing £2.7 million in the prior year.
Efora Energy (JSE: EEL) is a lot closer to being up to date with its financials. Interim 2024 results are due to be published by the end of May, with 2023 results having been published. The transfer of ownership of the Alrode Depot has also been delayed and should close by the end of May.
Gold Fields (JSE: GFI) announced that CFO Paul Schmidt is proceeding with early retirement. He will be replaced by Alex Dall on an interim basis (an internal promotion) with effect from 1 May 2024. Sometimes these interim promotions stick and sometimes they don’t!
The CFO of Chrometco (JSE: CMO) – which is suspended from trading – has resigned with effect from June 2024. No replacement for Wilhelm Hölscher has been named at this stage.
The well-balanced MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) captures opportunities by optimising on long-term returns, while also managing risk.
This index achieves this through broad market exposure, which also shields investors from concentrated risk, whether by market, region, or currency.
The MSCI ACWI includes both developed and emerging markets in one single index. The index is composed of large- and mid-cap stocks across 23 developed and 24 emerging market countries. With over 2 900 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the global investable equity opportunity universe, drawing diversified regional revenue, and can serve as a building block in investors’ overall asset allocation strategy. This index provides exposure to economies that may experience faster growth, yet higher volatility.
The below chart shows how broad the index is and how it compares to the universe of shares from other major indices.
Figure 1: Source – Satrix, MSCI, December 2023
To understand the opportunities in broad market exposure, the chart below shows the annualised returns of regions included in the MSCI ACWI, with data from 1988 to end of December 2023.
Figure 2: Source – MSCI, January 1988 to December 2023 Monthly USD returns DM: Developed Markets EM: Emerging Markets
There is also a clear difference in risk profiles, depending on the region, and a big dispersion in market returns. Rolling the dice by choosing only one or two regional exposures in the hopes of achieving high returns, while minimising capital loss, is a risk. Regional market returns can contrast each other, and this is where the MSCI ACWI index provides investors with a broader exposure – to all the opportunities within markets scattered across the chart.
Growth in different regions
In the above graph there is a clear indication of a difference in risk profiles, depending on the region, while there is a big dispersion in market returns as well. Frequent political turmoil, monetary policies, and volatile currencies can be attributed to emerging markets being on the higher end of the risk scale. However, these regions provide a diversified and entirely different opportunity set compared to developed markets.
An interesting example of this is the luxury-led French market (developed) in comparison to South Africa’s resources-led market (emerging); each with their own factors, opportunities, and limitations.
The International Monetary Fund has revised its growth estimates for Asia, with China and India accounting for most of the upward revision. The MSCI All Country World Index provides investors with an opportunity to diversify across traditional developed market regions and high-growth emerging market regions. Over 60% of its exposure comes from its US constituents, which generate around 45% of its revenues. China accounts for 10% of revenue exposure, with Japan at 5%. India comes in at 3% and South Korea at 3% as well.
The Satrix MSCI ACWI ETF
Investors looking to access the broad range of companies from developed and emerging markets within a single fund can do so via the new Satrix MSCI ACWI ETF that listed on the JSE main board on 22 February 2024. This local ETF offers an efficient and low-cost investment that captures thousands of stocks across many jurisdictions, all in a single trade. The fund is non-distributing, with a TER of 0.35%, and is priced in rands.
SatrixNOW is a no-minimum online investing platform from Satrix that allows you to buy and sell ETFs directly.
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Alphamin releases detailed results (JSE: APH)
The catch-up quarter was highly lucrative
Investors had a good idea of what was coming in the results for the first quarter of the year, as Alphamin had already released several key metrics. Full results are now available, showing a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1% in production. That’s not the exciting part. The juicy bit is that sales volumes are up 102% i.e. have doubled, as the business could catch up on sales that didn’t happen in the three months to December due to infrastructure issues.
Tin pricing did the company a favour as well, up 7% vs. the preceding quarter. When this is combined with the sales volumes, it won’t surprise you to learn that EBITDA is up 156% vs. the preceding quarter. These numbers helped reduce net debt from $73 million to $28 million over the past three months. It also helps fund a final dividend of CAD$0.03 per share (Alphamin is listed in Canada).
And in case you’re wondering whether this result is just a function of a super soft base, it’s worth pointing out that net profit is up 25% year-on-year.
The Mpama South plant is ready for a ramp-up in tin concentrate production during May 2024, so that should bring another significant boost to Alphamin.
The share price is up 28% in the past 12 months and a rather ridiculous 404% in the past five years.
Astral Foods is celebrating vastly better numbers (JSE: ARL)
The poultry industry really deserved a break
Astral Foods has some excellent news for investors. For the six months ended March 2024, the company achieved an eyewatering increase in HEPS. The percentage growth, for what it’s worth, is between 435% and 445%!
It’s a lot more useful to know that HEPS increased from 163 cents to between 874 cents and 891 cents per share. When you see a move like this, you have to go back a few periods to give it more context. In doing so, you’ll find that earnings have been exceptionally volatile, as the industry has had to manage everything from avian flu through to lockdowns.
Here’s a summary of HEPS for the past few interim periods:
March 2024: 874 – 891 cents
March 2023: 163 cents
March 2022: 1,420 cents
March 2021: 597 cents
If you enjoy rollercoasters, now you know which sector to look at.
BHP comments on the Samarco settlement (JSE: BHG)
The company has responded to press speculation
The Samarco dam failure in 2015 really was a disaster in every sense of the word. It led to incredible heartache in the area and has cost many billions of dollars for BHP and Vale, the joint investors in Samarco.
There is regular speculation in the press around the progress in settling with the Brazilian State and Federal Government and other public entities. BHP tends to respond to speculation by issuing SENS announcements and clarifying the situation.
The current status is that BHP, Vale and Samarco have submitted a non-binding, indicative settlement proposal. Although the total amount under the proposal is $25.7 billion, this includes amounts already invested to date. The present value of BHP’s share of remaining payments is within the provision of $6.5 billion already on the BHP balance sheet as at 31 December 2023.
No final agreement has been reached yet among the parties.
Kore Potash is close to concluding the EPC contract (JSE: KP2)
The big meeting in Beijing is in early May
Kore Potash is as close as they’ve ever been to getting the all-important Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) proposal for the Kola Potash project in the Republic of Congo across the line. The counterparty is PowerChina International Group and an immense amount of effort has been put into this from both sides.
The proposal was received by Kore Potash on 6 February and the parties have been negotiating since then. A meeting is set for Beijing in early May to hopefully get this thing finalised. It all sounds very James Bond, doesn’t it?
I’ll tell you what isn’t very James Bond: a cash balance of only $1.4 million. Kore Potash recently raised funding to try and get the company to the point where the contract is signed. Without the EPC contract, there’s no funding available for the next step. Thankfully, the Summit Consortium has been on the hook since April 2021 to provide funding as soon as the EPC is finalised, with a promise to put the financing in within six weeks of the execution of the contract.
And on top of all of this, the management of Kore Potash has needed to keep relations with the government of the Republic of Congo nice and friendly. This includes local ceremonies attended by dignitaries. When you dedicate your life to junior mining projects in Africa, you’ve decided to play business on hard mode.
It would be lovely to see this go ahead. Hopefully, May will see the finalisation of that contract.
Raubex’s numbers are significantly better than expected (JSE: RBX)
Despite the Beitbridge Border Post project being in the base year, there’s still solid growth
Raubex took a conservative stance on its prospects for the year ended February 2024. The Beitbridge Border Post project was in the base period and not in this one, so there was doubt over whether Raubex could grow vs. that base. The company tried hard to manage investor expectations accordingly.
As recently as March, Raubex had indicated HEPS growth of between 0% and 10% for the year, which was already a solid outcome for the group. The latest trading statement is far more exciting than that, reflecting HEPS growth of between 15% and 25%. This really is an impressive outcome, with full details due to be released on 13 May.
HEPS will be between 451.7 cents and 491 cents for the full year and the current share price is R30.50.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
The CFO of Thungela (JSE: TGA) implemented a collar hedge structure with a put strike price of R131.93 and a call price of R175.45 with expiry in April 2026. That put price (which gives downside protection) is very close to the current price of R130.33 per share. The hedge relates to a position of 250,000 shares, which is worth nearly R33 million.
Astoria Investments (JSE: ARA) released its numbers for the quarter ended March 2024. The quarterly updates are basically just the movement in net asset value (NAV) and other financial metrics, without much commentary on underlying assets. Measured in dollars, the net asset value per share has dipped 2.9% in the past 12 months. The decrease is nearly 7.7% over three months. Most of the assets are in rands, so the dollar-based reporting hurts the NAV. In rands, it’s actually up over 12 months! The NAV per share is currently R13.8502 and the share price is R8.19.
Ibex Investment Holdings (JSE: IBX), formerly Steinhoff Investment Holdings, announced the repurchase of its listed preference shares. The prefs will be repurchased for R93.50 plus a dividend for the period from 1 January 2024 until the scheme is implemented. The scheme consideration is a 7.13% premium to the 30-day VWAP and gives holders a chance to monetise their shares in this highly illiquid structure. This really does show you the importance of understanding complex capital structures. Steinhoff ordinary shareholders saw their value disappear, whereas preference shareholders have come out in one piece.
Ellies (JSE: ELI) announced that the court application to liquidate Ellies Holdings is still underway. Subsidiary Ellies Electronics remains in business rescue and is continuing to trade, with the proposed business rescue plan due to be published by 10 May 2024. At subsidiary level, there is still a reasonable prospect of Ellies Electronics being rescued.
Salungano (JSE: SLG) announced that Robinson Ramaite has had his period of appointment as the group CEO extended until 1 April 2026. He was initially appointed on 1 March 2022 for a two-year period.
Fortress Real Estate (JSE: FFB) announced that GCR Ratings has upgraded its national scale long-term issuer rating from AA-(ZA) to AA(ZA) and affirmed its national scale short-term issuer rating at A1+(ZA). The rating outlook is Stable. Property funds require significant levels of debt to generate decent equity returns, so this is important stuff.
Cashbuild (JSE: CSB) announced the appointment of Hanré Bester as the CFO of the group. He is currently the CFO of Pinnacle Micro.
Tectonic shifts in demographics will change the way we think about retirement planning. Structured products can play a key role in navigating these changes.
Global demographic shifts are increasingly under the spotlight and investment professionals and investors alike are having to think about what this means for their portfolios.
For a while the demographic shift of people living longer and having fewer children has been associated with Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and China, as well as parts of Southern and Eastern Europe, but it’s becoming clear that most countries are going through this shift, including many emerging market countries.
Since the 1950s the global total fertility rate (the average number of babies born per woman) has fallen from 5 to about 2.3. This is close to what is known as the replacement rate of 2.1 (the fertility rate required for the population to remain stable over time) and many countries are well below that. According to United Nations data for 2023, Italy (1.3), Japan (1.3) and China (1.2) are well below the replacement rate, but emerging economies such as India (2), Bangladesh (1.9) and Iran (1.7) are also below the replacement rate (South Africa is at 2.3).
Many of the countries with the lowest fertility rates also have the highest median ages, based on Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) figures: Japan, Germany and Italy all feature in the top 10, though India (143rd), South Africa (144th) and Bangladesh (145th) still have young populations. It’s clear though that for most countries, median ages will continue to rise.
Reassessing the old models
As these trends deepen and societies continue to grow older, so the traditional models for pensions and other forms of contractual saving will need to be reassessed. Much of the industry is built on the idea of inflows coming from the incomes of younger workers, which then provides the base for the drawings by older retirees.
However as the proportion of younger, working-age investors and pension fund members falls, and the number of retirees grows (and live longer) so the ability of traditional retirement vehicles to support retirees diminishes.
Policymakers around the world are having to grapple with these problems and find solutions, including potentially raising the retirement age of workers.
At the same time, advisers and their clients will also need to re-examine their approach to questions about risk and asset allocation. Given longer lifespans, is it right to de-risk portfolios as investors approach retirement and immediately thereafter? And should investors look to keep a higher weighting in equities at a time when the textbooks tell them to increase their weighting in fixed income, cash and high dividend-paying equities?
Instinctively many investors will want to reduce equity exposure as they approach retirement, but this may not be the best approach if they have a longer life to look forward to in their retirement. Investors will need to look for ways to grow their capital.
Structured products: an investment for managing the demographic shift?
In this environment, structured products have a key role to play. In recent years, investors have been drawn to this particular alternative asset class as an excellent way to reduce volatility in their portfolios in the years just before and after retirement. This is an especially pertinent issue at the moment, with many of the world’s leading indices, including the S&P 500, Nasdaq, Nikkei 225 and Eurostoxx 600 hitting record highs. Structured products can be an excellent tool for hedging the risk of a market sell-off while also allowing participation in the upside.
However, structured products can also help investors negotiate the tectonic demographic shifts discussed above. By incorporating structured products into portfolios well into retirement, investors have a way of managing their risks while also continuing to participate in equity market gains in the future.
Of course, such will depend on the design of products and the underlying investments chosen as reference, as well as the liquidity needs of the investors over the term of each structure (remember structured products don’t pay dividends).
In conclusion, while demographic shifts look set to disrupt traditional retirement planning, structured products could play an increasingly important role in helping investors make the transition to the new retirement world.
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The board of Anglo American has unanimously rejected the proposal put forward by BHP. Apart from the structural complexities in the proposal that the board doesn’t like, the main reason is that they believe that the proposal undervalues Anglo American and its prospects.
The copper assets are the focus of course, with the chairman of the board commenting that shareholders still stand to benefit from the full impact of the investments in copper. I’m sure BHP would agree with that statement, behind closed doors at least, as why else do they want to acquire Anglo?
They also describe the BHP proposal as being opportunistic. I think just about every successful acquisition in history that creates shareholder value has been opportunistic, otherwise what’s the point?
Right now, there’s no firm offer on the table. At this stage, the board of Anglo recommends that shareholders take no action in relation to the proposal.
Here’s what it looks like when deals start being thrown around in the market:
The question is: will BHP put in a firm bid and on what terms? Or will another bidder with a taste for copper emerge?
Finbond: are they profitable? (JSE: FGL)
The trading statement has left more questions than answers
Finbond released a trading statement dealing with the year ended February 2024. It notes that HEPS will increase by at least 20% vs. the headline loss per share of 15.1 cents for the year ended February 2023. This isn’t as simple as it sounds.
Firstly, they refer to HEPS rather than a headline loss. Secondly, “at least 20%” is the minimum required disclosure under JSE rules, so the improvement could be vastly higher. Thirdly, they only made a loss per share of 2.3 cents in the interim period, so there’s a chance that they have swung into the green.
It’s frustrating when companies make things obscure. It really wouldn’t have taken much effort to release a clearer trading statement.
Impala Platinum commences a retrenchment process (JSE: IMP)
PGM prices just aren’t giving the sector any relief
Job losses in the mining sector are becoming a worrying trend, with PGM prices putting great pressure on local operations. This impacts jobs both at the mines and the corporate head office. As sad as this is, the decision taken by companies is always on the basis of rather cutting 3 jobs than shutting down a company and losing 10 jobs in the process.
The maths isn’t quite that severe in this case, with Impala Platinum looking to potentially reduce labour costs by 9% across Impala Rustenburg, Impala Bafokeng and Marula, along with a 30% reduction in costs at head office. In total, 3,900 positions could be affected.
Remember, this is the same company that got into a bidding war for Royal Bafokeng Platinum and won. Here we are with retrenchments just a short while later.
Invicta to combine KMP with Kian Ann (JSE: IVT)
The group is looking to strengthen its international holdings
Invicta holds KMP Holdings (a leading supplier of aftermarket heavy-duty diesel engine parts) through Invicta Global Holdings. KMP is based in the UK and US and services a global client base in over 150 countries. Invicta also has a 48.81% stake in Kian Ann Engineering based in Singapore.
Although this transaction means that Invicta is effectively diluting its interest in KMP, the group has taken the decision along with the other shareholders in Kian Ann that KMP would be better off within that entity, benefitting from the procurement and manufacturing network of Kian Ann.
To achieve this, Invicta Global Holdings will sell the shares in KMP Holdings to Kian Ann for roughly R300 million. Invicta originally paid around R270 million back in 2022. The uplift is almost entirely thanks to the rand though, as the base selling price now vs. the purchase price then is only different by around £200k.
KMP will also repay shareholder loans and claims of around R156 million to Invicta. Considering that KMP made net profit of around R31 million for the year to March 2023, it feels like Invicta is getting paid a strong multiple here, particularly for a business that hasn’t delivered exciting earnings growth in the past few years.
Hopefully, combining it with Kian Ann will change that.
Oasis Crescent: the property fund without debt (JSE: OAS)
As a Shariah-compliant fund, this is an unleveraged play on property
Oasis Crescent Property Fund is a fascinating thing. This is basically what you get when you strip leverage out of property returns entirely, as the fund cannot have any debt as a Shariah-compliant structure. Despite not using leverage, the fund proudly notes a unitholder return of 10.3% per annum since inception compared to inflation of 5.6%.
Sometimes, not having debt is actually pretty useful, even in property. Just ask executives of REITs in the past couple of years, particularly those with significant exposure to office property.
For the year ended March 2024, Oasis Crescent grew its distribution including non-permissible income by 12.9% to 112.2 cents per unit. Investors pay up for this thing, as that’s only an earnings yield of 5.4% based on the current share price. Remember, most investors in a Shariah-compliant structure can’t use many of the fixed income alternatives, like money market and other accounts.
The share price is flat over 5 years despite some volatility along the way.
Reinet enjoyed an uplift this quarter in the fund (JSE: RNI)
The fund numbers are a precursor to the listed group numbers
Between December 2023 and March 2024, Reinet fund saw its net asset value per share increase by 7.9% in euros. That’s a very strong quarter! The fund holds the investments in Pension Insurance Corporation and British American Tobacco amongst others.
This isn’t exactly the same thing as the group net asset value per share, but it’s always a good directional indication of how the listed NAV has performed in a given period.
Junior miners are generally loss-making for obvious reasons, but investors are getting impatient
Renergen is right on the cusp of becoming a producer of helium rather than a promiser of it. Getting across that line has proven to be really difficult though, with a few technical issues along the way that have irritated the market. This is why the share price has shed half its value over the past 3 years. It’s also way down from the peaks above R43 per share, currently trading at R12.50.
The bears in the market don’t need much to set them off when it comes to Renergen, with the latest trading statement adding fuel to the fire. The headline loss per share for the year ended February 2024 will be between 72.7 cents and 76.7 cents vs. a headline loss of 19.89 cents in the prior period. This deterioration is due to the downtime experienced during the maintenance cycle.
Sibanye wants to equity-settle its convertible bonds (JSE: SSW)
Currently, settlement would be in cash
In 2023, Sibanye-Stillwater placed $500 million in bonds due November 2028 with a coupon of 4.25%. The proceeds were used to fund the Reldan acquisition, with the remainder retained for general corporate purposes.
The bonds are currently cash-settled instruments, which is a drag on the Sibanye balance sheet. It significant reduces the flexibility of the company. To try and address this, shareholders are being asked to approve that the bonds can be converted into ordinary shares at a price of R24.5792 per Sibanye share. The current share price is R22.19. That might not sound like an issue right now, but remember these bonds will exist until 2028. By then, one would certainly hope that the share price has moved higher.
This is a material drag on the share price, as a conversion of all the bonds would represent 13.21% of shares in issue!
It sounds highly punitive, but remember that Sibanye raised debt at a lower rate than would otherwise have been the case without the conversion. This is a typical mezzanine funding structure. Such structures are more expensive than vanilla senior debt by design, which is why they are only used when senior debt isn’t a viable alternative.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
A director of Sabvest Capital (JSE: SBP) has bought shares worth R1.7 million.
Aside from a trade related to share options that was included in the same announcement, a prescribed officer of Capitec (JSE: CPI) has bought shares worth R1.67 million.
Alphamin (JSE: APH) has declared a dividend of 41.78220 cents per share, payable on 24 May. The current share price is R15.89.
As Eastern European property fund MAS (JSE: MSP) continues to navigate a very difficult funding environment, the company announced that €40.2 million worth of notes have been issued in a private placement. They are due 2029 and carry a rate of 6.50%. They were issued as an exchange for existing notes due 2026 with a rate of 4.25%. The rate is higher obviously, as is to be expected in this environment, but at least the maturity is three years later.
It is no surprise whatsoever that Sasfin’s (JSE: SFN) disposal of the Capital Equipment Finance and Commercial Property Finance businesses to African Bank for a very lucrative price received almost unanimous approval from Sasfin shareholders.
A subsidiary of Sephaku Holdings (JSE: SEP) has repurchased a further 2.72% of its issued shares for R7.2 million. The average price paid was R1.04 and the current share price is R1.10.
Absa (JSE: ABG) announced that Deon Raju has been appointed as the Group Financial Director. He’s been at Absa since 1999 and his most recent role was Group Chief Risk Officer, held since June 2021.
Anglo American Platinum (JSE: AMS) has announced the appointment of Sayurie Naidoo as CFO of the group. She has been with Anglo American for over 15 years
Kibo Energy (JSE: KBO) remains stuck on R0.01 per share despite regular SENS announcements. The latest one is that the Pyebridge project has passed the requirements to retain the Capacity Market contract that makes gross margin of £308k per year. The site has secured further contracts to ensure minimum annual gross margin of £817k until 2028. The 2nd phase at Pyebridge is in preparation phase and will be funded by RiverFort under the new funding agreement. Based on the absolute lack of action in the Kibo share price, RiverFort seems to be getting the bulk of the economic benefits from Kibo’s subsidiary Mast Energy Developments.
Putprop (JSE: PPR) has proposed an odd-lot offer. This is a classic case of where it makes sense, as those holding fewer than 100 shares each make up a whopping 52% of the total number of shareholders in the company. They hold just 0.01% of shares in issue. This means that the compliance burden far outweighs the benefit of such a widely held register. The price will be a 5% premium to the 30-day VWAP as at 3 June 2024.
Due to elevated cost of living pressures, fashionistas around the globe are having to tighten their belts. Make no mistake – those belts are still designer. Consumers are just getting smarter at paying less for them.
As a fashion enthusiast on a budget, I never thought the day would come where I would be able to afford anything from the lauded house of Prada. And yet, this week, I made a personal dream come true when I bought myself a beautiful pair of Prada sunglasses. How is this possible on a writer’s earnings? The answer is simple: I got them secondhand.
Yes, thanks to a lot of patient searching and the miracle of the internet, I bought a pair of designer sunglasses for approximately 25% of the price that I would have paid in-store. They are in perfect condition and their authenticity has been verified. All I had to do was to wait for someone to pay the full price for them first, and then decide to sell them.
If this is your first introduction, then welcome to the wonderful world of secondhand luxury.
Macklemore and me
The year was 2012, and American hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s saxophone-driven earworm, “Thrift Shop” had just landed. As someone who had just discovered the magic of charity shops and flea markets, I felt that the song had been written for me. My thrifting habit, which had started as a way to access affordable clothing as a broke student, had quickly morphed into the understanding that I could get branded, better-quality clothing at cheaper prices than the new stuff at the mall, if only I was willing to dig for the gems inbetween rails of mediocre hand-me-downs.
Sure, sometimes I would come across an item of clothing that was stained, that smelled funny or that needed a bit of repair. But with a little bit of elbow grease and a lot of OMO, I found that I could restore practically any item of clothing to its former glory – and then revel in that glory knowing that I had paid peanuts for it.
I was not alone in this discovery, of course, and that’s part of the reason why “Thrift Shop” was such a hit. At its core, the song spoke to a generation of young consumers who were rejecting the notions of embarrassment and shame that were previously attached to secondhand clothing. Thrifting became cooler than ever before – a counterculture way of sticking it to big labels while looking fabulous and saving money, all at the same time. Secondhand marketplaces started popping up online, and Instagram pages dedicated to the resale of clothing became a dime a dozen. In no time at all, the thrift shop became a digital entity. Forget about e-commerce. This is recommerce.
In 2023, approximately one third of clothing and apparel items purchased in the US were secondhand. The global secondhand apparel market is currently worth $177 billion, up 28% from 2021. By 2027, the same global market is expected to grow to $350 billion.
That’s a lot of secondhand jeans.
It’s not all grunge though
It might surprise you to learn that of the global secondhand apparel market, about a third is made up of luxury goods. In 2023, Bain & Company estimated that approximately $49.3 billion worth of secondhand luxury goods were sold globally.
The emergence of online resellers like the RealReal and Vestiaire Collective has significantly enhanced accessibility to pre-owned designer items. Consequently, the resale market has expanded twofold over four years, now representing 12% of the value of the new luxury goods market.
In my example of the Prada sunglasses, I paid less for the item than I would in-store, which makes sense to me, because I know that I am buying something pre-owned. What surprised me in my research is that some luxury items can actually fetch a higher price secondhand than they would brand new. For example, certain Hermès items not only retain their value but can command a significant premium on the secondary market. In fact, the brand’s pre-owned handbags can fetch prices up to 25% higher than their original retail value. Likewise, pre-owned timepieces from Rolex and Patek Philippe often sell at average premiums of 20% and 39%, respectively.
A lot of this has to do with the limited release of luxury items. When Hermès only makes 500 of a certain scarf before discontinuing it forever, there is no option to buy a new one in the store. In a classic case of demand surpassing supply, resellers are then free to name their prices.
Most brands experience a decline in resale value, however. Over the past year, the secondhand value of products from Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta has decreased by 10%, 14% and 23% respectively. When resold, handbags by Louis Vuitton typically lose an average of 40% of their original value, while Christian Dior’s bags nearly depreciate by half. As you can imagine, this is great news for consumers in the secondhand market.
Can luxury brands get a slice of this pie?
What’s more lucrative for a luxury brand than selling an item once? Selling it twice, of course!
A number of luxury brands have already woken up to the idea that their wares have a significant resale value, and are striving to insert themselves into the circular economy. Some do this by collaborating directly with the resale platforms – Burberry, for instance, has partnered with Vestiaire Collective, while Gucci has sided with The RealReal. Some have gone even further and established their own resale platforms. Rolex is a great example of this. Their certified pre-owned watch programme provides discerning customers with timepieces that have been authenticated and serviced by their own watchmakers, adding a layer of reassurance and trust that might just be enough to lure consumers away from private sales and back into the fold.
The trick to success in this game is volumes. While high-value, low-volume brands like Rolex and Hermès are capable of making a “second profit” off their items, clothing designers and handbag manufacturers are not so lucky. Because their volumes are higher, they would have to repurchase substantial quantities of pre-owned inventory for this approach to be successful in their own stores or on their own platforms, which causes all kinds of other problems for the vast manufacturing capacity they have built to produce new items.
It’s a generational thing
Earlier in this article, I mentioned that the rise in thrifting in the early 2010s was primarily driven by the fact that perpetually-broke Millennials were flocking to thrift stores instead of shopping malls. Now, we’re seeing how the next generation, Gen Z, is embracing secondhand shopping as a result of their strong focus on sustainability.
For better or worse, Gen Z is the generation that was raised with the ever-present threat of global warming and ecological decline in their peripheral vision. All that fear, combined with a healthy dose of greenwashing, has created a generation that has demonstrated a strong preference for sustainable brands, with some showing a willingness to pay as much as 10% morefor an item that they believe to be more sustainable.
Unsurprisingly, 75% of Gen Z consumers also prioritise sustainability over brand recognition when making clothing and apparel purchases. And what’s more sustainable than buying what already exists, instead of creating demand for new items, which require resources to produce? That explains why, according to eBay’s second annual Recommerce Report, a staggering 80% of Gen Z consumers are actively seeking out and purchasing pre-owned items.
I’m not the head of strategy at Prada (thankfully), but if I were, I would be paying particular attention to these statistics and considering what they mean for my brand in the long term. In a recent survey of affluent consumers, those under the age of 40 strongly agreed that buying secondhand was a sustainable choice, with just under half of participants in the same age group reporting that they are currently buying pre-owned luxury goods.
It’s not looking like a particularly bright future for luxury brands that can’t adapt to compete with their own secondhand wares. As for me – I’ll be smiling all summer long as I wear my favourite new sunglasses. And if I get tired of them, I can always just resell them.
About the author:
Dominique Olivier is the founder of human.writer, where she uses her love of storytelling and ideation to help brands solve problems.
She is a weekly columnist in Ghost Mail and collaborates with The Finance Ghost on Ghost Mail Weekender, a Sunday publication designed to help you be more interesting.
Get the latest recap of JSE news in the Ghost Wrap podcast, brought to you by Mazars:
BHP looks to change the mining landscape (JSE: BHG | JSE: AGL)
Does Anglo American’s underperformance make it a sitting duck?
Get the corporate finance notebooks out for this “unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional combination proposal” that BHP has made to Anglo American. This is the kind of deal that investment bankers dream of, with names like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on the announcement.
It’s worth saying right up-front that although BHP is listed on the JSE, the company actually wants nothing to do with South African mining risks. For this deal to go ahead, BHP would require Anglo American to unbundle its shares in Anglo American Platinum and Kumba Iron Ore to shareholders.
As Anglo is a UK-domiciled company, that takeover law will apply to this situation. This means that BHP has until 5pm on 22nd May to either announce a firm intention to make an offer, or announce that it doesn’t intend to make an offer.
It didn’t take BHP long to respond, with an announcement that was clearly ready to go. Just two hours later, BHP noted that this is an all-share offer based on the ratio of 0.7097 BHP shares for each ordinary share in Anglo American. Plus, each Anglo shareholder would get the shares in Amplats and Kumba in proportion to the effective interest in those companies.
They do the hard work for you in terms of the maths, showing that this is a premium to the market value of Anglo’s unlisted assets (i.e. excluding Amplats and Kumba) of 31%. It’s a premium of 78% based on the 90-day VWAP.
If this deal goes ahead, Anglo and BHP shareholders would be invested in a very large combined entity that has iron ore, metallurgical coal, potash and copper. BHP’s various global listings (including on the JSE) would be retained. BHP also notes that Anglo shareholders would be able to determine how much exposure they want to Amplats and Kumba, unlike the current situation where you can’t own Anglo’s copper and diamond assets without also getting exposure to the PGMs and iron ore.
Speaking of diamonds, BHP doesn’t sound very keen on De Beers. They note that it would be subject to a strategic review post completion. One wonders if we could see a separate listing of De Beers at some point.
Notably, there is still no firm intention to make an offer at this stage. There will need to be a due diligence process first.
Yet another solid period at Clicks (JSE: CLS)
The valuation is always a debate, but this is a quality company
Clicks is one of the most solid retailers you’ll find in South Africa. The health and beauty category is a particularly great place to play, with the pharmacy offering ensuring there is footfall in the stores, while the small appliances also play an important role for group sales and margin.
For the six months to 29 February 2024, Clicks group retail turnover by 12.4%. Wholesale wasn’t nearly as exciting (UPD has strategically stepped away from certain contracts that are less profitable), so group turnover growth came in at 9.0%. I must also point out that UPD had certain systems implementation considerations to manage at the distribution centre, but the platform is apparently now ready for growth.
Underpinning this growth is a footprint of 900 stores and 11 million Clicks ClubCard loyalty programme members. You may also recall that Clicks acquired Sorbet, with that business contributing solid franchise fees to the Clicks group.
Operating profit increased by 13.5% and operating margin expanded by 30 basis points to 8.5%, primarily due to the increased mix of retail vs. wholesale. Retail costs were up 14.8%, but 300 basis points was due to acquisitions and there was also a considerable contribution from new stores. Comparable retail costs grew 8.7%. Distribution costs were up 10.8% due to the systems implementation and associated employment costs.
By the time you reach the bottom of the income statement, diluted HEPS was up 13%. Share buybacks were a great help here, as headline earnings (total, not per share) increased 10.5%. Those buybacks are made possible by Clicks having such a cash generative business, with cash from operations of R1.1 billion vs. capital expenditure of R314 million. They are ramping up heavily for 2024, with planned capital investment of R920 million. Although Clicks highlights the risk of a return of load shedding, they are accelerating their store expansion plan to between 50 and 55 stores for the 2024 financial year.
On the working capital front, overall group net working capital days improved from 47 days to 44 days. Retail inventory days improved from 85 days to 82 days, but UPD increased from 48 days to 61 days due to an increase in stock ahead of the single exit price increase. In other words, this is strategic buying of stock.
There is an aggressive push underway by Clicks. They’ve invested in the wholesale business and they are planning a lot of new stores. This is going to hurt the grocery chains, as Clicks products are some of the juiciest margin categories in retail.
Coronation releases earnings for the March period (JSE: CML)
They really put in the minimum required effort with this disclosure
I find lazy disclosure on the market very frustrating. For example, Coronation notes that assets under management were R631 billion as at the end of March 2024. The announcement doesn’t give the comparable number a year ago, so you have to go digging for it. The March 2023 number was R623 billion. Perhaps growth of just 1.1% in 12 months is the reason they make you go digging.
Then, instead of reminding the market of the per share impact of the tax provision in the comparable period, they simply point out that earnings across all metrics will be vastly higher because of the base effect. How much work would it have been to just show the comparable number without the tax problem?
I went back into the old report and found that fund management earnings per share (their preferred metric) excluding the tax charge was 191.5 cents. For this period, it’s expected to be at least 175 cents. In other words, even with adjusting for the tax charge, the business is going backwards.
Standard Bank gives a quarterly update (JSE: SBK)
Currency movements led to flat headline earnings
Each quarter, Standard Bank has to disclose financial information to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to assist that entity with its reporting on its investment in Standard Bank. To ensure all shareholders have the same level of information, Standard Bank also releases a quarterly earnings update on SENS that includes some important commentary.
Earnings in the banking activities grew by mid-single digits for the first quarter of the period. Although credit impairment charges were higher as expected, there was solid growth in the lending activities in particular. Operating expenses were flat year-on-year, leading to margin expansion.
In the Insurance and Asset Management segment, earnings fell year-on-year due to losses linked to market movements.
Group headline earnings ended up flat year-on-year, with the good news story in banking offset by the insurance and asset management result as well as negative movements in average currencies relative to the rand.
The group remains committed to positive jaws this year (i.e. income growth ahead of expenses growth) and return on equity inside the target range of 17% to 20%.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
Adding to the recent purchases in the company, another director of OUTsurance (JSE: OUT) has bought shares – this time to the value of R14.9 million.
A director of Italtile (JSE: ITE) has sold shares worth R112k.
In news that doesn’t come as a surprise if you’ve been following the recent corporate activity around MC Mining (JSE: MCZ), Nhlanhla Nene (yes, the ex-Minister of Finance) is stepping down as chairman of the company.
Following the joint announcement by Canal+ and MultiChoice which set out the terms of the mandatory offer, Canal+ has notified shareholders that it has, this week, acquired a further 3,374,668 MultiChoice shares in open/off market transactions. Canal+ now holds an aggregate of c.41.60% of the MultiChoice shares in issue. The shares were acquired at an average price per share of R116.57, below the mandatory offer price of R125.00 per share, for an aggregate R394,48 million.
RMB Holdings had declared a gross special dividend of 3,5 cents per share from proceeds of the Divercity Property share disposal. The special dividend will return R48,75 million to shareholders.
Coronation Fund Managers has repurchased 65,699 shares at R33.62 in terms of its Odd-lot offer to shareholders and 141,105 shares in terms of the specific offer. The repurchased shares will be cancelled and delisted. The total issued ordinary share capital of Coronation will be reduced to 249,592,298.
Marula Mining, which has investments in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, took a secondary listing on A2X on April 25, 2024. The company has a primary listing on the Apex segment of the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market based in London. It is seeking to move its primary listing to the Main Market of the LSE and will also take a secondary listing on the Kenya Securities Exchange in late April/early May.
Ellies has applied to the JSE for the voluntary suspension of its shares. The company commenced with voluntary business rescue proceeding earlier this year, subsequently entering liquidation following the announcement by the business rescue practitioner that there was no reasonable prospect of the company being rescued. The suspension of trading is effective immediately.
A number of companies announced the repurchase of shares:
British American Tobacco has commenced its programme to buyback ordinary shares using the £1,57 billion net proceeds from its sale of ITC shares. The company will buy back £1,60 billion of its ordinary shares – £700 million in 2024 and the remaining £900 million in 2025. This week the company repurchased a further 840,000 shares at an average price of £23.33 per share for an aggregate £1,96 million.
Prosus and Naspers continued with their open-ended share repurchase programmes. During the period 15 to 19 April 2024, a further 4,451,758 Prosus shares were repurchased for an aggregate €128,06 million and a further 331,645 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R1,07 billion.
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