Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Subscribe
Home Blog Page 86

Ghost Bites (Crookes Brothers | Fortress | Invicta | Mantengu Mining | Nedbank | PPC | Primeserv | RAC | Renergen)

The Finance Ghost
-
0
Ghost Bites (Crookes Brothers | Fortress | Invicta | Mantengu Mining | Nedbank | PPC | Primeserv | RAC | Renergen)

Crookes Brothers is heavily loss-making (JSE: CKS)

Primary agriculture doesn’t always grow, sadly

There’s no business quite like show business. Farming is a close second.

Crookes Brothers enjoys far more liquidity on its farms than in its share price. Even a really tough trading statement couldn’t cause any afternoon trade, with no shares changing hands despite an announcement being released.

During a very difficult period in the year ended March 2023, the headline loss per share came in at a rather revolting 708.80 cents. For reference, the prior period saw positive HEPS of 229.60 cents.

For reference, the share price is R32.

Fortress: life after REIT (JSE: FFA)

With a share price up 20% this year, life isn’t so bad after losing REIT status

Capital flexibility really isn’t a bad thing in this environment. After losing REIT status, Fortress doesn’t have to meet the onerous distribution requirements any longer. This means the fund isn’t on the same treadmill as the REITs on the JSE that are constantly having to generate and distribute earnings.

The company has been very busy with property sales, with disposals of R1.2 billion and the recycling of capital into new logistics opportunities.

The vacancy rate in the logistics portfolio is just 1.2%. Perhaps even more impressively, the local retail portfolio has a record low vacancy rate of 2.0%.

The initial yields on the warehouse developments aren’t going to set your pants on fire. They seem to be between 8.5% and 9.0%. In the Central and Eastern Europe portfolio, the yield on new properties is between 6.8% and 7.4%.

Pick n Pay walked away from joint ownership of a new warehouse with Fortress, electing to pay a higher rental instead of owning part of the property. Although a retailer should certainly have better uses for the capital than owning a warehouse, I do wonder about these rental yields in an environment where the prime interest rate is now 11.75%.

Speaking of retailers, Fortress is buying the old Pick n Pay warehouse for R500 million plus a spend of R65 million on the property. A portion of it will be sold to Dis-Chem for R492 million (with thanks to @jacojanscholtz on Twitter for correcting my misread of the SENS here).

In the Industrial portfolio, vacancies increased from 4.5% in December 2022 to 7.2% in May 2023. The Office portfolio is less than 4% of total assets and has seen vacancies go in the right direction, though they remain high at 20.7%.

As a reminder, Fortress owns a meaty 23.9% stake in NEPI Rockcastle (JSE: NRP), a property fund that seems to enjoy a good reputation among local investors.

The loan-to-value ratio at Fortress is 37.3%.

Distributable earnings guidance for the year ended June 2023 has been increased from R1.66 billion to R1.74 billion.

Invicta beat all the odds this year (JSE: IVT)

The group shrugged off geopolitics and other challenges in 2023

In the year ended March 2023, which has hardly been an easy time in the world, Invicta grew revenue by 8.1% and HEPS by 47.9%. The dividend per share is 11.1% higher. This is a proper performance.

The disparity between HEPS and dividend growth becomes even more interesting if you look at operating profit growth, which was only 7%. The trick here is that the share of profits from joint venture Kian Ann is accounted for below operating profit and this metric was up by a lovely 50%.

An important feature of this result is that the entire group did well. Return on net operating assets was solid across every division.

Looking ahead, the group is investing in China. BMG China is off to a slow start but Invicta remains optimistic there, having taken a 40% share in an industrial consumable parts business in China for R45 million. The group is also developing energy conversion technologies in China, adding another layer of diversification.

The share price closed 3.6% higher as the market applauded a set of results where the only blemish was perhaps in cash conversion, specifically due to working capital differences vs. the prior year.

Mantengu Mining is buying back its shares (JSE: MTU)

The current share price is way below the board’s opinion on intrinsic value

When a share is trading below what the directors think it is worth, share buybacks are a good way to allocate capital on behalf of shareholders. The company is literally investing in itself, mopping up shares at a good price and leaving the remaining shareholders in a better position than before.

That’s the theory, anyway.

Share buyback discipline is sorely lacking in many companies. I was impressed to see Mantengu Mining announce a share buyback programme, particularly as this says something about management’s view on future cash flows from Langpan Mining.

The current share price is R1.70 and the board believes that the intrinsic value is R5.55 per share. That’s a big gap that certainly justifies a buyback programme.

The market cap is only R260 million, so getting enough stock to make a meaningful difference isn’t going to be the easiest. Still, those looking for exit liquidity at this price will likely find the company itself on the other side of the trade!

Nedbank is keeping the market well informed (JSE: NED)

The four-month update has been supplemented by a pre-close update

It’s always good to see listed companies giving more information than the minimum required. In this case, Nedbank is really going above and beyond. The ink was barely dry on the update dealing with the four months to April before Nedbank released a further update with news on May and the expectations for the rest of the year.

Nedbank expects GDP growth for the full year of 0.1%, which is at least on the right side of zero. A further 25 basis points increase in the prime rate is expected this year.

The good news is that the guidance given in the previous update remains correct. This means growth in net interest income above mid-teens, with net interest margin above the 410 basis points in the comparable period last year.

The group credit loss ratio is expected to be above 100 basis points, which means it is higher than the target range. As we’ve seen in other banks, the retail and business banking credit loss ratio is worse than in the corporate and investment banking side of the group.

Non-interest revenue is key to driving a higher return on equity and this metric grew by high single digits to the end of May, with full-year guidance of mid-single digit growth.

Expenses are up by high single digits, with mid-to-upper single digit growth expected for the full year.

Despite the growth in income being higher than expenses, as well as the solid growth in associate income from the African investment, headline earnings growth will be “muted” for the first half of the year with a better performance expected in the second half of the year.

The good news is that the share repurchase programme has been executed at a price below book value, which the group notes is accretive to return on equity and diluted HEPS.

PPC releases detailed annual results (JSE: PPC)

These won’t come as a surprise, after the last detailed update

If you remember nothing else about PPC, remember that the businesses on the rest of the continent are showing a happier trajectory than South Africa. This is despite the weak rand making cement imports less competitive than usual. Also remember that the bulk of PPC’s business is local, so “trajectory” and “paying the bills” are two different things.

The reality is that in a slow growth environment with insufficient investment in infrastructure, capacity in PPC’s local business goes to waste. Any uptick in demand would do wonderful things for the PPC business, as an industrials group improving its capacity utilisation is where the true magic of operating leverage becomes visible.

For now, the “SA obligor” results (i.e. South Africa and Botswana) reflect revenue growth of 1% and a drop in EBITDA margin from 11.8% to 8.7%. Despite this, net debt improved by R263 million. The SA obligor group is still profitable, but less profitable than it could be.

Hyperinflation significantly impacts the reported results in Zimbabwe, but the important point is that the dividend has increased from R91 million to R147 million. The Rwanda business paid an inaugural dividend of R79 million to the group.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is that debt levels in the SA obligor group are considered to be at an optimal level of gearing. Instead of using dividends from the other African businesses to reduce debt, PPC is able to return cash to shareholders. This takes the form of a share repurchase of R200 million that has been approved by the board.

Primeserv expects a solid jump in earnings (JSE: PMV)

The share price closed 13% higher, but watch that bid-offer spread

In a trading statement dealing with the year ended March, Primeserv’s HEPS is expected to increase by between 24% and 32%. Results will be out on Thursday, so that will give us full details.

Although the share price closed 13% higher, that was purely because the bid-offer spread is enormous. There are many offers in the market at R1.30, which is where the bid finally hit based on this trading statement.

You always have to be careful when interpreting major daily moves in illiquid companies.

RAC moves forward despite load shedding (JSE: RACP)

2023 was a grind for entertainment venues

RECM & Calibre (RAC) can attribute 95.7% of its asset exposure to its 58.8% stake in alternative gaming group Goldrush. Before you get throwbacks to Dodgeball, we aren’t talking about that kind of alternative gaming.

Goldrush operates electronic bingo terminals, limited pay-out machines, sports betting shops and online betting businesses. Three of the four lines of business are significantly affected by load shedding. Shopping at Mr Price by torchlight is one thing, but there really is no way to play an electronic game without electricity.

The problem in this period was the move from stage 4 to stage 6 load shedding. Frankly, no business in South African can withstand stage 6 for an extended period.

Despite the challenges, Goldrush grew revenue by 18% and EBITDA by 2% without the effect of IFRS 16, an accounting standard that is perhaps final proof that accountants need to get out more and spend time in real businesses before setting standards. EBITDA would’ve been up by 9% if not for a once-off gain on settlement of a finance arrangement in the prior year.

RAC is structured as an investment holding company. The investment in Goldrush is valued at 7x EBITDA. The equity value of Goldrush has increased by 6% over the past year, with a total return of 9% including the dividend. At RAC level, the net asset value per share grew by 7.3% including the impact of Astoria (JSE: ARA) shares that were unbundled to shareholders.

But perhaps the most interesting part of this announcement is buried right at the bottom:

Simply, this means that the management fees will now be calculated with reference to the market cap (what the market says the business is worth), rather than the director’s valuation of the underlying company. That’s a significant step for an investment holding company to take, building more alignment between management and shareholders.

Renergen hits the milestones (JSE: REN)

The US congressional notification process is complete

After the major US debt package was recently announced, there were a couple of key conditions that need to be met. One was a US congressional notification, which is now complete. The other relates to a large equity capital raise, which is where the focus will now sit.

In a quarterly review, Renergen highlighted the debt funding as the biggest step forward this quarter. There was other good news too, like a contract to supply LNG to Timelink Cargo.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing, with a leak detected in the helium circuit that requires an off-site repair. Although these are hopefully teething problems, it’s a reminder that the production process isn’t simple.

In case you’re wondering, a drilling programme is still underway. The colourful names continue, with the Morpheus well as the recent focus.

Revenue from customers in this quarter was R14 million and administrative and corporate costs were nearly R20 million.

Little Bites:

  • Director dealings:
    • Des de Beer is back in action with Lighthouse (JSE: LTE), this time buying R12.9 million worth of shares.
    • A non-executive director of Stadio (JSE: SDO) has bought shares worth R180k.
  • If you hold fewer than 100 shares in CA&S Holdings (JSE: CAA), then you need to be aware that the odd-lot offer was approved by shareholders. This is being structured as a dividend, so there is dividends withholding tax on the amount paid to shareholders under the offer. This is particularly important for individual shareholders, as the price is R7.06 before tax and R5.65 net of tax. You can elect not to sell, but you need to specifically make that election. If you do nothing and you hold them in your own name, you could be worse off than if you just sold the shares on the open market.
  • Castleview Property Fund (JSE: CVW) is selling the Makhaza Shopping Centre in Khayelitsha to a related party for R140 million. This is above the valuation in the March 2023 books of R136 million. Despite being to a related party, the sale is so small as a percentage of the market cap that no shareholder approval is required.
  • With the Impala Platinum (JSE: IMP) corporate action still underway, Royal Bafokeng Platinum (JSE: RBP) has extended the appointment of its interim CFO. There are still a couple of conditions precedent to be met, with the Takeover Regulation Panel as the major remaining hurdle.
  • AngloGold Ashanti (JSE: ANG) is trying quite hard to move the narrative away from the horrible quarterly update that came out last week. The company announced a deal for a large wind and solar renewable energy project at the Tropicana Gold Mine in Australia. A third party, Pacific Energy, will construct the project under a 10-year power purchase agreement. It will be integrated into the existing gas-fired facility at the mine. This will be the largest off-grid gas-wind-solar project with battery backup in the Australian resources sector.

Ghost Wrap #30 (Afrimat | AngloGold | Harmony Gold | Growthpoint | Mr Price | FirstRand | Standard Bank | Steinhoff)

The Finance Ghost
-
0
Ghost Wrap #30 (Afrimat | AngloGold | Harmony Gold | Growthpoint | Mr Price | FirstRand | Standard Bank | Steinhoff)

Welcome to Ghost Wrap. It’s fast. It’s fun. It’s informative.

In this week’s episode of Ghost Wrap, we cover these important stories on the local market:

  • Afrimat is acquiring Lafarge South Africa, a deal announcement that came against a backdrop of disappointing recent performance across the local cement industry.
  • AngloGold is a perfect example of why I think gold stocks are for trading rather than investing.
  • Harmony Gold is trying to wave the flag for the sector, though the move into copper says something about gold mining in general.
  • Growthpoint gave the market an honest assessment of near-term performance in this interest rate cycle and the share price took a knock as a result.
  • Mr Price released a poor set of numbers, raising questions around whether they have lost focus on the core business in a busy period of M&A.
  • FirstRand and Standard Bank are both rewarding shareholders, with surprisingly different pros and cons in the recent numbers.
  • Steinhoff has released possibly its final report as a listed company.

The Ghost Wrap podcast is proudly brought to you by Mazars, a leading international audit, tax and advisory firm with a national footprint within South Africa. Visit the Mazars website for more information.

Listen to the podcast below:

Ghost Bites (Afrimat | AngloGold | Investec | Steinhoff)

The Finance Ghost
-
0
Ghost Bites (Afrimat | AngloGold | Investec | Steinhoff)

Afrimat updates the market on Glenover (JSE: AFT)

Mining deals take a long time to implement

Afrimat’s acquisition of Glenover was first announced in December 2021. The deal structure was the purchase of certain assets and a right to mine select deposits at the Glenover mine, with the option to acquire 100% of the shares in Glenover Phosphate.

Of the total deal value of R550 million, R250 million was for the sale assets and R300 million for the option to buy the company.

The sale of assets was implemented in August 2022. Just a couple of months later in October 2022, Afrimat exercised the option to acquire the Glenover shares.

Although there are still a couple of conditions precedent for the share acquisition, including approval under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), Afrimat has announced the negotiated payment profile for the R300 million.

The really interesting thing is that R150 million will be settled through the issuance of Afrimat shares based on the 30-day volume weighted average price. This issuance will take place in the next couple of weeks. Then, R147 million is payable in cash on 30 April 2024. This settles the claims against Glenover held by the current owner. In other words, this deals with the shareholder loans being bought by Afrimat.

The price of R3 million for the equity will be paid when the conditions are met.

Once the shares are issued in part settlement of the sale claims, Afrimat will enter into a contract mining agreement with Glenover that will entitle the company to commence mining of other minerals in addition to vermiculite. The benefit here is that Afrimat can start extracting economic value before the shares change hands, as the regulatory process can really drag on.

AngloGold reports a big year-on-year drop in profit (JSE: ANG)

A flat $ price doesn’t help when costs are going up

The conundrum with gold (and why I gave up on this sector) is that the gold price doesn’t automatically go up because of inflation, yet the costs to mine do. The gold price is far more intricate than that, impacted by all kinds of macroeconomic and geopolitical issues.

The latest quarterly update from AngloGold shows exactly how this plays out in practice. In the three months ended March 2023, the average gold price received per ounce was $1,895. This is almost identical to $1,881 in the three months to March 2022. Unfortunately, total cash costs per ounce increased by 14% in the subsidiaries and 28% in the joint ventures. Whichever way you cut it, that means a lot of pressure on margins.

Production issues seem to be part of the problem, primarily due to lower grades being mined. That doesn’t sound good. There are some good news stories at individual mines, but the overall story is clear to see.

For this reason (along with a higher cost of debt as well), profit before tax has dropped from $218 million to $92 million. I have to mention the cost of debt, as the company has borrowings of over $2.1 billion. Finance costs on borrowings increased by 12% year-on-year.

With cash from operations down by 82% and capital expenditure up 5%, it’s not like the cash situation is any prettier.

The recent gold price run has been driving the share price, but it is now moving lower again. The volatility you’ll see in this chart is exactly why I think gold stocks are for trading, not investing:

And against this tricky backdrop, the COO of AngloGold is retiring after 12 years with the company. An interim COO has been appointed and they are looking for a permanent replacement.

One step closer to the Rathbones deal (JSE: INL)

Investec’s deal has received approval from shareholders of Rathbones

If you’ve been staying up to date with news from Investec, you’ll know that the UK Wealth & Investment business is merging with Rathbones Group Plc to create a scale player that has a much better chance of successfully competing in that market.

Shareholders of Rathbones have approved the deal, so the remaining conditions relate to regulatory approvals. Completion of the deal is expected in Q3 / Q4 2023.

Is this Steinhoff’s final report as a listed company? (JSE: SNH)

Interim results have been released

With the WHOA Restructuring Plan approved by the Dutch courts, Steinhoff will now implement the transaction that will see it delist from the JSE once the various steps have been put in place. That might take longer than six months, so there may still be another financial report to come from the business.

It hardly matters, with the share price down at 6 cents. I’m tired of saying I told you so.

With net debt of €9.8 billion and a roll-up of interest that is higher than the rate at which the group could repay the debt, it’s not hard to see why Steinhoff has no value left for shareholders.

The restructuring process has been a gold mine for advisors, with advisory fees of €29 million in this period vs. €6 million in the comparable period.

The most interesting thing is that Steinhoff is now accounting for its investments under investment entity rules. Here is the sum of the parts calculation, showing just how severe the shortfall is vs. the debt balance:

For what it’s worth, the perpetual preference shares in this table are also listed under the ticker JSE: SHFF. They are up 8.6% this year. It makes all the difference knowing where you are playing in the capital stack.

Little Bites:

  • Director dealings:
    • The CEO of Bytes (JSE: BYI) sold £4.75 million worth of shares for estate planning purposes. That’s quite an estate, because this excludes the very valuable 1.18% stake that he still has in this R29 billion group.
    • An associate of the risk director at Investec (JSE: INL) has sold shares worth £3.9 million.
  • I’m not sure that it is causing too much of an overhang in the Vukile (JSE: VKE) share price, but strategic B-BBEE partner Encha Properties is about halfway through its plan to sell 5.5 million to 6.0 million shares as part of settling upcoming commitments to Investec Bank.
  • AEEI (JSE: AEE) has released updated pro-forma financials dealing with the effect of unbundling AYO Technology (JSE: AYO). If for some reason you hold shares here, refer to the full announcement for the impact as it is way too detailed to repeat here. In summary, the headline loss would drop from 34.49 cents to 1.13 cents per share.

Ghost Bites (Brimstone | Growthpoint | Harmony | Labat | Mr Price | Stadio)

The Finance Ghost
-
0
Ghost Bites (Brimstone | Growthpoint | Harmony | Labat | Mr Price | Stadio)

A drop in NAV for Brimstone this quarter (JSE: BRT)

The full calculation for intrinsic NAV has been released

Before getting into specifics, there is a very important point above the NAV table in the Brimstone announcement. The company notes that each position is reported net of ring-fenced debt and capital gains tax (CGT). Not every fund reports net of CGT (although they should), so that’s a good thing.

Another important point is that over 73% of the Brimstone portfolio sits in Oceana and Sea Harvest. If you don’t like fish, this isn’t for you.

There are several other listed positions in the group, including Equites, Phuthuma Nathi (the MultiChoice SA B-BBEE structure), Stadio and MTN Zakhele Futhi. For these assets, the observable market price is used for the NAV calculation.

As we head into the unlisted section of the portfolio, Brimstone has to use various other valuation techniques ranging from book value to earnings multiples.

There is a significant amount of debt in the portfolio. The gross asset value of R5.3 billion carries nearly R2.2 billion worth of debt.

The fully diluted intrinsic NAV per share fell by 7.3% from December 2022 to the end of March 2023. That’s a particularly ugly outcome on an annualised basis, but this was a very rough period on the JSE for “SA Inc.” and much of the underlying exposure is in that bucket.

Interest rates are biting Growthpoint (JSE: GRT)

A particularly honest trading update gave the market a nasty surprise

To make the economics work, property funds need to operate with high levels of debt. Just think of any of your personal property investments. Debt is part of the appeal, as you can borrow up to 100% of the value of a property as an individual in an attempt to really juice your returns. Emphasis on the word “attempt”.

In the listed space, a REIT can operate at a maximum of 60% loan-to-value. Most of them aim for around 40% to leave some headroom. This means that when the cost of debt rises, a bigger chunk of rental income needs to pay the bank before going to shareholders.

When rentals come under pressure, the situation is worse. Negative rental reversions at Growthpoint improved from -16% in the interim period to -14.3% in the nine months ended March 2023. In other words, the latest quarter was quite a bit better.

Operating costs are also a problem, particularly diesel costs for generators that cannot be fully recovered from tenants. In the industrial parks, the recovery rate is 74%. The recovery rate in retail is described as “low” and in in the office sector, the recovery rate is 60%.

Looking at specific sectors, reversions in retail were -11.3% for the nine months, down from -13.1% in the interim period. The renewal success rate was only 79.1%, with cinemas in two malls deciding not to renew.

In the office sector, vacancy of 20.1% is a slight improvement from 22.4% a year ago. There’s some hope in places like Illovo, with Sandton clearly still problematic. It’s very dependent on supply and demand of course, with a Western Cape vacancy rate of 11.4% and KZN sitting at 4.2%. Negative reversions were -19.8%, or -10.8% excluding one particularly large space.

Even in industrial property, there are negative reversions (no percentage given) to retain tenants. The vacancy rate has increased from 4.3% in the interim period to 5.0% over the nine months.

The update on the crown jewel in the portfolio, the V&A Waterfront, is always interesting. International tourist arrivals are up 133% on pre-pandemic levels, which is incredible and probably greatly assisted by the weaker rand. Operating profit at this iconic property grew 23% and surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 5%. With just a 0.4% vacancy rate and strong growth in the hospitality assets as well, the V&A is easily the best property in the country.

In terms of capital allocation, there have been various sales across the portfolios and the Growthpoint “incubated” funds are growing. This includes Growthpoint Investment Partners, Growthpoint Healthcare REIT and Growthpoint Student Accommodation. Where appropriate, the in-house trading and development division is involved.

Looking beyond our borders, Growthpoint faces the same issues as other South African groups in Nigeria, with an inability to efficiently extract capital from Lango. With the recent news that the Nigerian currency will be allowed to “float” to try and address these issues, there is likely to be short-term pain and hopefully some long-term stability with this issue.

The announcement is very light on details in the international portfolio, simply pointing shareholders to the listed results of Growthpoint Properties Australia, Globalworth Real Estate Investments and Capital & Regional. With rising rates globally, Growthpoint is focused on “optimising” the portfolio and supporting capital-light funds management strategies.

Perhaps focusing on South Africa, even with all its problems, isn’t such a bad thing after all? The grass isn’t always greener.

The weighted average tenure of rand-denominated debt (if I understood the announcement correctly) has dipped from 2.7 years to 2.6 years and the weighted average interest rate is up from 8.9% in the interim period to 9.1%. If you include cross-currency interest rate swaps and foreign-denominated loans, it drops to 6.6%.

The outlook section is where the the nasty surprise was waiting for investors, sending the price down 3.8%. Although distributable income per share is expected to show year-on-year growth in FY23, Growthpoint expects it to decrease in FY24 as the interest rate cycle really starts to bite.

Harmony releases a strong pre-close update (JSE: HAR)

Underground recovered grades will be ahead of guidance

Harmony Gold’s financial year will end in June. Ahead of that, the group has released a pre-close update to give the market an update on how the company has performed vs. guidance on key operational metrics.

Thanks to a strong performance in underground recovered grades, production will be towards the upper end of the FY23 guidance of between 1,400,000 and 1,500,000 ounces. All-in sustaining costs have remained below R900,000/kg.

If you’ve been following the company closely, you’ll know that the name Harmony Gold may not be appropriate in years to come. The group is investing heavily in copper, with projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea. This is a serious copper platform that will bring diversification to Harmony.

Labat brings in the brainpower – and a politician? (JSE: LAB)

An expert advisory board has been put together

As you probably know, Labat Africa is working on a vertically integrated medical cannabis business. To be held in high regard by important customers (I can’t help myself), the company has appointed a number of scientists, academics and medical professionals to constitute an advisory board.

The company believes that this is important in cracking export markets like Germany.

This advisory board will give Labat advice and recommendations, but the company holds the final decision-making responsibility. It’s an interesting group of people, though I’m not sure why number 15 on a list that includes many PHD-types is a former Member of Parliament with the current title of “member of the ANC” and no mention of qualifications – what does that have to do with science?

Mr Price releases annual results (JSE: MRP)

HEPS fell by 6% in the year ended 1 April 2023

This is no April Fool’s joke I’m afraid, despite when this annual period ended. Mr Price saw a drop in HEPS despite the meaty acquisition of Studio 88 that played a major role in boosting group retail sales by 18%. EBITDA was only up by 5.4%, with Mr Price blaming load shedding for ruining Christmas.

Whilst we can all agree that Eskom and The Grinch are in the same WhatsApp group, we also know that Mr Price was underprepared vs. some competitors. Simply not responding timeously to external problems or being adequately prepared for them isn’t something that the management team can get away with unscathed.

I quite enjoyed the ridiculous assertion that Mr Price’s positioning as a “value retailer” made them “conservative in back-up power investment” – so it’s ok to buy cheap clothes in the dark? These poor results are fully deserved.

Poor sales drove a highly promotional environment i.e. there were too many sales to clear stock. This hits gross margin (down 150 basis points) and working capital, with elevated inventory levels (up 18.6% at period end excluding Studio 88) until the sales are effective.

Without the acquisitions, same store sales decreased by 3.4%. This didn’t stop the group from expanding its footprint by 5.7%, excluding Studio 88. Online sales were up 1.8% excluding this acquisition.

Cash sales were only up 1.2% excluding Studio 88, with credit sales up 8.3%. Mr Price remains a cash-focused retailer (87.3% of sales) and that’s difficult in this environment.

Even the Homeware segment is taking pain, down 9.9% vs. a base period that saw growth of 6.1%. Yuppiechef seems to be the standout story, which makes sense given it’s focus on higher income customers. Mr Price paid a lot of money for that acquisition, so they really need it to work out.

The group needs to really focus on its core business now. In the past two years, they allocated R5.5 billion to acquisitions, R1.7 billion to capex and R4 billion to dividends. The heavy focus on acquisitions brings in plenty of integration risk and potential for management distraction, which is perhaps why they forgot about Eskom’s troubles.

Speaking of dividends, the payout ratio has been maintained which means that the dividend has dropped in line with earnings.

Stadio updates the market on student numbers (JSE: SDO)

The proportion of distance learning students continues to increase

At the company AGM, Stadio noted 8% growth in student numbers in the first semester of 2023. Distance learning student numbers grew by 10%, so the proportion of distance learning students is up to 86% of total student numbers.

Contact learning student numbers only grew by 2%, heavily impacted by poor growth in returning students that offset the benefit of decent growth in new students. Lower intakes in the COVID years are a factor here, so the growth in new contact students of 15% is encouraging for the next few years.

Little Bites:

  • Director dealings:
    • Associates of two directors of Ascendis Health (JSE: ASC) have acquired shares in the company worth R964k.
    • The CEO of Spear REIT (JSE: SEA) has bought shares for his family worth R88k
  • Castleview (JSE: CVW) has a large market cap and almost no liquidity, as it has been used for a reverse listing of controlling shares in other local funds (Emira and Transcend) by the major shareholders. The group confirmed its NAV per share as at March 2023, coming in at 855.38 cents. The current share price is R7.10. The final dividend is 16.01 cents a share.
  • Is Bidvest (JSE: BVT) getting closer to a bigger play for Adcock Ingram (JSE: AIP)? Bidvest has increased its stake to 56.13%, perhaps inspired by a genuine colds and flu season that can only be helpful for Adcock Ingram’s earnings.
  • In good news for Oceana (JSE: OCE), the company announced that the FSCA has closed its investigation into whether any persons at the company published false, misleading or deceptive statements about the financial performance. The outcome of the investigation is that no contraventions were identified, so there are no enforcement steps.
  • Southern Sun (JSE: SSU) has repurchased 3.3% of its outstanding shares for an average price of R4.20. That’s a bit below the current market price, but not by much. Of the general authority granted at the AGM in September 2022, there is still 13.3% of outstanding shares remaining. In other words, the company can do far more repurchases if the balance sheet allows.
  • The messy business rescue process at PSV Holdings (JSE: PSV) is still underway, with many legal documents flying up and down. It sounds like there may be some progress in the next two months, reading through all the drama. I can never find the website for this company anymore, hence I haven’t linked the name.
  • If you hold a meaningful stake in Richemont (JSE: CFR), you may want to speak to your broker about the highly technical withholding tax reclaim announcement that was released by the company.

Who’s doing what this week in the South African M&A space?

Marylou Greig
-
0
Who’s doing what this week in the South African M&A space?

Exchange-Listed Companies

Growthpoint intends to ask shareholders to vote on the issue of 20 million shares (0.6%) to the company’s flagship corporate social investment initiative, the CSI Trust, to further increase its B-BBEE credentials. The shares, currently held as treasury shares by subsidiary Growthpoint Management Services, would be sold to the Trust at R12.50 per share, financed by way of a loan in the amount of R250 million. According to the company, the Trust would become a valuable source of perpetual funding for Growthpoint’s social impact projects. Aside from shareholder approval the scheme also needs sanction from the B-BBEE Commission.

Following a cautionary announcement earlier this month, Afrimat has now announced the acquisition of Lafarge South Africa from Holcim Group subsidiary Caricement. The acquisition has been structured as a locked box transaction with effect from 31 December 2022 for US$6 million payable in cash. In addition, Afrimat will repay shareholder loans of R900 million with R500 million payable immediately and the rest over a 12-month period. The acquisition will expand Afrimat’s current national footprint and products, driving efficiencies in the construction materials segment.

Sasol and long-term strategic partner Topsoe, a Danish decarbonisation technology company, intend to establish a 50/50 Joint Venture to develop sustainable aviation fuel solutions (SAF). The JV will develop, build, own and operate ventures producing SAF based on Sasol’s Fischer Tropsch technology and Topsoe’s relevant SAF technologies.

FirstRand’s corporate and investment bank, RMB, has partnered with Sturdee Energy to help grow the business in the southern African renewables energy sector. The equity funding will give the business the ability to further build out its immediate pipeline of 175MW and position it to deliver flexible power purchase agreements.

Unlisted Companies

Zoie Health, a digital health platform using technology to provide holistic healthcare benefits, has closed a pre-seed extension funding round. The round was led by 4DX Ventures with participation from impact investor E Squared Investments. With the funding, Zoie Health plans to grow Africa’s first digital women’s health clinic by increasing the product offering and scaling to new regions on the continent.

Actis, the UK-headquartered global investment firm focused on the private equity, energy, infrastructure, and real estate asset classes, has agreed to sell BTE Renewables to Engie and Meridiam for a total enterprise value of US$1 billion. BTE Renewables is a local renewable energy company, with an operating portfolio of nearly 500 MW of wind and solar PV projects in South Africa and Kenya. In terms of the deal, Engie will acquire the SA portfolio and team while Meridiam will acquire the Kenyan portfolio and team.

Solar energy asset financier Yellow has raised US$14 million in series B funding to scale its operations in Africa in a round led by Convergence Partners. The investment will be used to leverage more debt finance to expand its customer base offering finance for smartphones and solar systems.

DealMakers is SA’s M&A publication.
www.dealmakerssouthafrica.com

Weekly corporate finance activity by SA exchange-listed companies

Marylou Greig
-
0
Weekly corporate finance activity by SA exchange-listed companies

As part of its capital optimisation strategy, Investec Ltd acquired on the open market a further 609,989 Investec Plc shares at an average price of 461 pence per share (LSE and BATS Europe) and 315,503 Investec Plc shares at an average price of R109.81 per share (JSE).

In line with the company’s policy to maintain the number of treasury shares below 10%, Glencore has advised shareholders that it has cancelled 100 million treasury shares.

Industrials REIT which has a secondary listing on the JSE will, following the scheme of arrangement announced in April by a fund managed by Blackstone, delist from the JSE on 27th June 2023.

Resource Generation’s secondary listing on the JSE was suspended in October 2020 due to non-compliance with the Listing Requirements. According to an announcement by the JSE, the company has failed to take adequate action to enable it to reinstate the company’s listing and as such will be removed from July 3, 2023.

A number of companies listed on one of South Africa’s Stock Exchanges have initiated share buyback programmes and each week update shareholders. They are:

Southern Sun has repurchased 48,841,627 shares at an average price per share of R4.20 for an aggregate value of R205,1 million. The repurchase was funded from available cash resources. The company now hold 100 million treasury shares representing 6.8% of the company’s issued share capital.

Adcock Ingram has cumulatively repurchased 8,108,862 ordinary shares from shareholders representing 4.8% of the company’s issued share capital. The shares were repurchased for a total value of R416,8 million. Following the repurchase the company holds 16,922,821 treasury shares.

Investec’s share repurchase programme has been renewed and commenced on May 30. The programme will end on or before September 29. This week 289,998 shares were repurchased at an average price per share of R109.32. Since November 21 ,2022, the company has repurchased 11,490,575 shares at a cost of R1,23 billion.

This week Glencore repurchased a further 16,920,000 shares for a total consideration of £78,28 million. The share repurchases form part of the second phase of the company’s existing buy-back programme.

Prosus and Naspers continued with their open-ended share repurchase programmes. During the period 12-16 June 2023, a further 2,484,946 Prosus shares were repurchased for an aggregate €169,1 million and a further 326,922 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R1,03 billion.

Two companies issued profit warnings this week: Sephaku and PPC and two companies issued or withdrew a cautionary notice: Clientèle and PSV.

DealMakers is SA’s M&A publication.
www.dealmakerssouthafrica.com

Who’s doing what in the African M&A space?

Marylou Greig
-
0
Who’s doing what in the African M&A space?

DealMakers AFRICA

The Namibian Government has exercised its right to take up a 24% equity interest in the US$10 billion Green Hyphen Project. The investment will be held through SDG Namibia One, a bespoke blended finance infrastructure fund which will look to raise money from local institutional investors to develop Namibian green hydrogen projects and related infrastructure.

Acacia Angels, an Egypt-based investment group, has participated in a US$750,000 seed investment round in UK-based micro-sensor startup, Precision Cardiovascular. External Medtech angels and company directors also participated in the round.

Equity Group is to acquire a 91.93% stake in Rwandan bank Compagnie Générale de Banque for US$48,1 million. The bank is the fifth largest in Rwanda which will be combined with Equity’s existing Rwandan operations making it the second largest bank in the country.

Bahrain’s Al Salam Bank has acquired a further stake in Al Salam Bank Algeria increasing its equity stake from 37.43% to a majority shareholding of 53.13%.

TFK, an Egyptian curated fashion marketplace, has acquired OPIO, a direct-to-consumer fashion brand in a strategic move backing its plans to expand its all-in-one fashion aggregator and venture builder, The Fashion Kingdom. Financial details were undisclosed.

Actis, the UK-headquartered global investment firm focused on the private equity, energy, infrastructure, and real estate asset classes has agreed to sell BTE Renewables to Engie and Meridiam for a total enterprise value of US$1 billion. BTE Renewables is a local renewable energy company, with an operating portfolio of nearly 500 MW of wind and solar PV projects in South Africa and Kenya. In terms of the deal, Engie will acquire the SA portfolio and team while Meridiam will acquire the Kenyan portfolio and team.

M-KOPA, a fintech platform providing digital financial services to underbanked consumers, has received a US$10 million investment from the AfricaGoGreen Fund. The fund, managed by Cygnum Capital Asset Management, has invested $8 million in M-KOPA Kenya and $2 million in M-KOPA Uganda. The funds will be used to increase the number of customers it serves throughout sub-Saharan Africa and advance environmentally friendly technologies with the potential to lower energy costs for both homes and businesses.

Agel, an Egyptian fintech startup, has raised a seven-figure investment in a pre-seed round from Plus Venture Capital, Seedstars International Ventures, Flat6labs with participation from SEEDRA Ventures among others. The startup which offers Sharia-compliant lending services for small and medium sized enterprises, intends to use the funds to enhance its product and accelerate its expansion across Egypt.

Kenyan used car marketplace Peach Cars, has raised US$5 million in a seed round led by The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners and angel investors, marking one of Africa’s largest seed rounds in the mobility sector. Founded to bring transparency and a better experience to Kenya’s car ownership and maintenance process, the investment will be used to scale operations in sub-Saharan Africa and enhance the startups research and development efforts and further develop its technological solutions.

OmniRetail, a Nigerian tech-first B2B e-commerce company providing end-to-end retail operations solutions for manufacturers, distributors, logistic partners and retailers in Africa, has received an undisclosed investment from Aruwa Capital Management.

Clothing retailer, Truworths (Zimbabwe), is proposing to raise c. ZWL$2,2 billion in a renounceable rights offer of 384,1 million shares. The company says the capital raise is necessary to sustain the viability of the business.

DealMakers AFRICA is the Continent’s M&A publication.
www.dealmakersafrica.com

National security protections, procedural fairness and cartel enforcement highlighted as competition law trends

Nazeera Mia and Shakti Wood
-
0
National security protections, procedural fairness and cartel enforcement highlighted as competition law trends

One of the key points made during the Africa Competition Law Conference, hosted by Bowmans in late February, is that national security provisions are firmly in the sights of competition authorities internationally, but less so for competition regulators in Africa.

Apart from protectionist measures applied in merger control, other hot topics highlighted at the event were procedural fairness in merger assessments, and that cartel enforcement is becoming more prominent.

National security provisions gain momentum globally

Though national security considerations appear to have become a trend internationally, with the exception of South Africa, African countries do not seem to be prioritising national security provisions in their competition regimes.

In the EU, there has been an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) regulations, which have been described as a ‘patchwork’, with loose coordination between regimes.

Of the 27 EU Member States, 18 have FDI regimes, with seven more expected to adopt laws before the end of the year. Each regime has its own substantive standard, and their definitions of national security are often opaque – sometimes intentionally so, to retain flexibility.

This can be frustrating for business. Instead of receiving published decisions, parties have access to one-page decisions that often do not disclose the identity of the case handler.

In South Africa, concerns have been raised that national security provisions – which have not yet come into effect – may not be dealt with transparently, and may be open to abuse. In sectors where national security provisions apply, businesses may need to work with political scientists to identify and address potential industrial policy issues.

Speakers at the Africa Competition Law Conference also discussed protectionist measures in merger control and agreed that they are here to stay, but that they need to be applied in a way that communicates that South Africa and the rest of Africa is open for investment from both local and foreign investors.

Procedural fairness is broader than merger reviews only

There remain significant differences in merger assessments and anti-trust matters across Africa.

Speakers at the conference highlighted that procedural fairness does not only apply once transactions have been notified to the relevant regulator, but extends to the earlier planning process involving the assessment of the transaction, consideration of whether it requires notification, and which competition authority/ies have jurisdiction.

One potential challenge raised was discrepancies between regulators in relation to the treatment of third-party submissions or interventions during merger reviews. Third-party input can be valuable in assessing the likelihood of a substantial lessening or prevention of competition because of the merger, but such input needs to be balanced against the timeline for review of the merger.

While South Africa has a clear framework for third-party intervention, this is not always the case in other jurisdictions. In addition, in some jurisdictions where third-party input is statutorily provided for, there appears to be inadequate provision for third parties to produce evidence and, in turn, for merger parties to respond to third-party submissions and cross-examine witnesses.

An example is a recent case in Tanzania where third parties had been allowed to raise objections after the merger had been approved. In that case, the merging parties had brought an appeal against certain conditions attaching to their merger. During the appeal proceedings, third-party objectors came forward to raise issues with the transaction – even though they had not come forward earlier when they had been afforded the opportunity to do so.

Despite the late entry of the third-party objectors into the process, the Tanzanian Competition Tribunal allowed them to enter submissions so that it could assess whether they had legitimate concerns.

The implication is that even where third parties have no legitimate basis on which to seek to intervene, they can nevertheless inordinately delay the merger approval.

Interestingly, opacity in respect of third-party submissions is not limited to African merger review processes. It has also been observed in European Commission merger reviews, where merger parties may not receive direct insight into issues raised by third parties.

Cartel enforcement is back on the map

Globally, the nature of cartel conduct has shifted away from traditional price fixing to more complex arrangements, including buyer cartels, information exchange cases and limitations on innovations or product characteristics.

A related trend is the increased sophistication of cartels in the ways in which they establish networks and maintain coordination. Instead of the boardroom meetings of the past, cartel firms have turned to electronic networking and other signalling, which can make it harder to detect collusion.

In turn, competition authorities are becoming more sophisticated in the ways in which they detect cartel activity. Virtual dawn raids, where the authorities demand electronic records held by companies suspected of cartel conduct, are expected to become more common.

In South Africa, dawn raids continue to be an important and effective tool for cartel detection, while corporate leniency has been extremely helpful in cartel enforcement.

In Kenya, although the competition law was amended to introduce a leniency programme, it has not yet been applied in practice. The Competition Authority of Kenya has, instead, been making effective use of dawn raids and has built its human and technological capacity to process data accessed during these raids.

Another example is the Competition Commission of COMESA, which is amending its competition regulations to introduce a leniency programme. Developments such as these are indicative of the increasing attention on cartel enforcement across the continent.

Nazeera Mia is a Knowledge and Learning Lawyer, and Shakti Wood a Consultant | Bowmans South Africa.

This article first appeared in DealMakers, SA’s quarterly M&A publication

DealMakers is SA’s M&A publication.
www.dealmakerssouthafrica.com

Ghost Bites (De Beers | FirstRand | Gemfields | Growthpoint | Marshall Monteagle | Spear | Steinhoff)

The Finance Ghost
-
0
Ghost Bites (De Beers | FirstRand | Gemfields | Growthpoint | Marshall Monteagle | Spear | Steinhoff)

Diamond sales have softened (JSE: AGL)

De Beers has released sales values for the 5th cycle of 2023

The release of a De Beers sales update doesn’t generally move the Anglo American share price, as the mothership is truly gigantic and is driven by many different factors. I always enjoy these updates though, as they give us a window into the luxury and particularly the affluent market. Decades of great marketing by De Beers have led to many people buying diamonds as part of getting married.

For most consumers, I’m convinced that a diamond is the only true luxury purchase they ever make!

In the fifth sales cycle of 2023, De Beers sold $450 million worth of rough diamonds. This is down from $479 million in the fourth cycle and is much lower than $657 million in the comparable cycle of the prior year.

The CEO of De Beers notes that macroeconomic challenges are “impacting end-client sentiment” and that the industry “remains cautious” at the moment.

FirstRand adds its voice to the banking updates (JSE: FSR)

ROE remains at the upper end of the 18% to 22% range

We heard from Standard Bank earlier this week and now FirstRand has come to the party, noting solid performance despite a weaker macroeconomic backdrop in South Africa. In fact, the group thinks GDP will shrink by 0.1% this year, which is a pretty bearish outlook. They also flag the likelihood of further rate hikes.

Despite this, the expectations for full-year earnings and return on equity (ROE) remain unchanged. They expect ROE to remain at the upper end of the 18% to 22% range.

Net interest income (NII) has benefited from higher rates and a strong net interest margin (NIM) as the group chose to prioritise quality lending opportunities over outright growth in 2021 and 2022. Non-interest revenue (NIR) is ahead of management expectations, so that’s part of why ROE is holding up so well.

As we saw in Standard Bank, strong income growth has been accompanied by significant cost growth, not least of all because bankers earn more money when they make more money for the bank. FirstRand expects the cost-to-income ratio for FY23 to be similar to the prior year, so operational leverage isn’t really coming through here.

Where FirstRand seems to differ significantly from the other banks is in the credit loss ratio, which is below the through-the-cycle range because of the more conservative approach to lending in the past couple of years.

Investors will like that.

Gemfields reports solid ruby auction results (JSE: GML)

One lot was unsold, but revenue was up 20% vs. the last ruby auction

The emerald market is doing good things for Gemfields and it seems that the ruby market doesn’t want to be left behind. The company talks about a “step-change” that happened in market pricing in 2022 and how this has been notably enhanced.

The company achieved revenue of $80.4 million in this auction, up 20% vs. the last ruby auction in December 2022. This was despite one of the very large lots (30% of total weight offered) going unsold. The average price of $265.99 per carat sold was much higher than it would’ve been if this lot had been sold.

Ultimately, total revenue is what really counts here as a measure of market strength, and that looks good.

For context, there have been 19 ruby auctions since June 2014 that have generated a total of $978.5 million in revenue.

Another day, another missed opportunity for Black investors (JSE: GRT)

Growthpoint is the latest company to snub the JSE’s B-BBEE listing environment

South Africa has an exceptionally poor savings rate. There are many reasons for this, but one thing I strongly believe is that we will only improve the situation in this country by giving people the opportunity to grow, rather than by giving them handouts.

By exposing more South Africans to investment opportunities, education around savings will filter through the system. But instead, the private sector generally chooses to implement broad-based trusts that do the work that government should be doing anyway. It’s just a mess, isn’t it?

Growthpoint has announced the creation of a new broad-based ownership scheme. R250 million worth of existing treasury shares will be sold to the trust at R12.50, which is roughly the current market price. This will be financed by a loan from Growthpoint to the trust of R250 million.

The loan will have a term of 10 years and will bear interest at 3% per annum, so Growthpoint is making a genuine effort here to effect a transfer of value.

But instead of a broad-based trust, this could’ve been a retail investment scheme like Old Mutual recently implemented. We desperately need to move past a world where the private sector keeps making up for the failings of our government.

The JSE seems to be overhauling the B-BBEE listing rules, so perhaps that will help broaden the investment universe of these schemes.

Marshall Monteagle released annual results (JSE: MMP)

Very few people really understand this group

Marshall Monteagle has a very large bid-offer spread and doesn’t trade often on the JSE, despite having a market cap of roughly R850 million. Part of this is that nobody really understands this investment holding company that is incorporated in Jersey.

The investment portfolio includes various global equities, commercial properties in the US and South Africa as well as import and distribution businesses. That’s very much a “family office” style portfolio rather than something coherent for investors to take a view on.

It also doesn’t help that revenue decreased by 38% in the past year and operating profit collapsed by 77%. HEPS of 7.9 cents has swung into a 4.4 cents headline loss per share.

Despite this, there is a dividend of 34.55 cents per share!

This is one of those listed companies that simply doesn’t aim to create a wide base of shareholders.

Spear’s sale of the Liberty building is approved (JSE: SEA)

Implementation is expected during October 2023

It will sound strange to you (and it probably should), but even large property deals need to go to the Competition Commission. South Africa is low on growth and big on regulation, sadly.

The Commission has clearly decided that the Liberty Life building near Century City doesn’t pose a risk to competitive forces in our country, so Spear REIT (JSE: SEA) is allowed to sell the thing.

The deal is worth just under R400 million and there is R375 million of attributable debt, so Spear gets nearly R25 million worth of equity from the deal. Importantly, it will reduce the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio by 500 basis points, which is significant. The LTV will drop to between 35% and 36% when the cash is settled, which is anticipated during October 2023.

If you didn’t listen, I just can’t help you (JSE: SNH)

Guess what? Steinhoff is worthless

Even if you’ve only kept half an eye on Ghost Bites, you would know that Steinhoff has been heading to zero. The fun market term for this is a “donut” – a big, fat zero. There’s nothing fun about losing all your money of course, but goodness knows the warning signs were there.

In fact, the board literally told the market over and over that the equity has no value. Yet, there was plenty of activity in the share price recently despite the warnings. Punters were essentially playing a game of musical chairs and the music has now stopped.

As was largely expected, the courts in Amsterdam have confirmed the WHOA Restructuring Plan that the creditors voted for and the shareholders voted against.

The share price dropped 62% to 11 cents per share. Of course, there are bids in the market at 10 cents per share, because gamblers just can’t help themselves.

Little Bites:

  • Director dealings:
    • One of the founders of Brimstone Investment Corporation (JSE: BRT) has bought N ordinary shares in the company worth R10k.
    • The CEO of PBT Group (JSE: PBG) bought shares for her son worth R10k. That’s a good use of pocket money!
  • If you are interested in decarbonisation plans at BHP Group (JSE: BHG), you’ll find detailed presentations and a Q&A at this link>>>
  • I was quite surprised to see that Pepkor (JSE: PPH) has changed its sponsor from PSG to Investec Bank. It’s quite the win for Investec to penetrate the Cape stronghold like that!

Ghost Bites (Afrimat | City Lodge | MTN | Nedbank | Standard Bank | Transaction Capital)

The Finance Ghost
-
1
Ghost Bites (Afrimat | City Lodge | MTN | Nedbank | Standard Bank | Transaction Capital)

Afrimat goes large with Lafarge (JSE: AFT)

The market seems to like this news

Afrimat has a strong track record in dealmaking, which is both a blessing and a curse. A premium valuation and strong market response puts pressure on the group to perform, with a 7.9% rally in response to the group announcing the acquisition of Lafarge South Africa from Holcim Group.

This comes against the backdrop of tough results at Sephaku Cement, with the local business now only breakeven, as well as PPC whose local business has seen a drop in profitability. In a classic “blood on the streets” approach, Afrimat is buying into the market at perhaps the perfect time.

At first blush, it looks like a small deal with a purchase price of just $6 million. But of course, that can’t be right, as we know that Lafarge is a big business. If you keep reading, you’ll see that the shareholder loan account of R900 million also needs to be repaid to the seller, with R500 million repayable immediately and the rest payable within twelve months.

In the year ended December 2022, Lafarge had a net asset value of R1.4 billion and attributable EBITDA of R38 million, way down from R311 million in the prior year. The foreign owners of Lafarge are clearly gatvol of South Africa and were looking for an exit, one that Afrimat is happy to give them.

There are various conditions to be met, including by the Competition Commission who will probably use this as an excellent excuse to force all kinds of “social interest” provisions into the deal. It will also need Ministerial approval under the MPRDA, so you can be sure that this will take time to implement.

For Afrimat, this deal expands the national footprint of the construction materials division and drives efficiencies within that business. This is a Category 2 deal, so shareholders won’t be formally asked for their opinion on it.

City Lodge is profitable (JSE: CLH)

Occupancies have largely exceeded 2019 levels

In great news for the tourism industry, City Lodge has noted the continued recovery of the hospitality sector. January was not a good month, which was quite the hangover from what was a very strong festive season. The good news is that occupancies have improved since then, with March as a peak at 63% occupancy.

In May, occupancy of 56% was 400 basis points higher than May 2019.

More importantly, for the eleven months to May, group occupancy of 56% was a whopping 1,800 basis points (i.e. 18%) higher than the comparable period.

Before you get too excited, the interim reporting period revealed that much of the occupancy gain was driven by aggressive pricing, with the average room rate only 1% up vs. 2019 despite so much inflation. Since January though, average room rate has shown high single digit percentages vs. 2019, so that’s much better.

The strategy of focusing on the food and beverage offering is working, now contributing 17% of group revenue.

As at the beginning of June, the group had a cash balance of R297 million and borrowings of R300 million. This is a neutral net debt position, which is useful because the capital reinvestment programme is picking up the pace as the group refurbishes some of the older generation hotels.

For the year ending June, the group expects a more than 100% improvement in the headline loss per share of 8.7 cents. This means that HEPS has turned positive, so the group is finally profitable again!

MTN’s latest headache (JSE: MTN)

There is a fight with the board of IHS Holding Limited

You shouldn’t trust a company that doesn’t understand the use of plurals. I specifically checked this on Google and the company name really is IHS Holding, not IHS Holdings.

Unfortunately for MTN, this advice that I just invented is proving to be valuable. It’s also too late, with MTN holding a 26% stake in IHS which is a separately listed group on the New York Stock Exchange. The share price hasn’t been doing very well, so MTN has struggled to sell the non-voting portion of its shares.

This is a legacy governance issue that MTN highlights as having been considered in a shareholders’ agreement that noted MTN’s desire to be treated equally to other shareholders. In light of this shareholders’ agreement and the difficulties in disposing of non-voting shares, MTN submitted a governance proposal to the IHS board that was completely ignored and not tabled at the AGM.

MTN has requested the IHS board to call an extraordinary general meeting to consider the proposal. If nothing else, at least MTN’s lawyers are being kept well fed.

Watch the Nedbank odd-lot for some pocket money (JSE: NED)

The pricing has now been announced

Like we’ve seen at a few other locally listed companies recently, Nedbank is implementing an odd-lot offer to clean up the share register and mop up holders of fewer than 100 shares. Those who don’t specifically elect to keep their shares will end up with cash instead, so make sure you know what is going on here.

This means that if you have a position of less than roughly R23,000 in Nedbank and you want to keep it, you need to instruct your broker accordingly.

The offer price is around R234.067 and the current price is R230.32. The last date to trade is 27 June. If the share price drops to a level that makes it worthwhile, you could buy up 99 shares and potentially make an arbitrage profit.

Standard Bank highlights another strong period (JSE: SBK)

HEPS will be at least 20% higher in this period

As I’ve written many times before in Ghost Bites, these conditions have been good for banks. They are enjoying healthy demand for credit (with inflation giving a helping hand) and they get to lend out the money at juicy rates. But sadly, local banks have fallen victim to a general souring towards South Africa.

You can see the pain in local banks from February onwards, as load shedding really took hold and then the Russian issues gathered momentum. Recently, with the lights mysteriously back on, the banks have bounced back and given juicy returns to anyone who bought the big dip. Also take note of how Capitec took a major knock this year simply from being far too expensive, particularly as the efficiency ratio started to move the wrong way as well.

Going back to Standard Bank, the group generates 46% of headline earnings in Africa, so there’s far more to the business than just South Africa.

Record revenue growth has been experienced in the five months to May 2022, up by more than 20%. Operating expenses are up by mid-teens, which is actually very high and somewhat disappointing in terms of what might have been for operating margin in this period. Higher incentives are at play here, so bankers are having a terrific year. There’s also tech and other cost pressures. To be fair, weighted average inflation across the countries of operation was 11.8%, so expense growth in the double digits was always on the cards.

Impairments are really coming through now, almost 50% higher than the comparable year. Importantly, the credit loss ratio is still within the through-the-cycle target range of 70 to 100 basis points. Home loans are under particular pressure, with Consumer Banking clients showing a credit loss ratio ahead of that target range of 100 – 150 basis points. Business and Commercial Banking clients are also running above their target range, so it was Corporate and Investment Banking that saved the day in terms of credit loss ratio. In difficult times, only the biggest balance sheets withstand the pressure.

The stories at Liberty Holdings and ICBC Standard Bank also sound promising.

Unsurprisingly, return on equity still exceeds group cost of equity. The guidance for the 12 months to December 2023 suggests that further improvement is coming, despite the higher credit loss ratio. Both revenue and cost growth guidance has been increased.

And for the six months to June 2023, Standard Bank expects HEPS growth of at least 20%. Based on the revenue growth and the positive JAWS (as revenue growth exceeded cost growth), I suspect it will be a fair bit higher than that. A 20% guidance is the minimum requirement to trigger a trading statement, so Standard Bank is playing it safe for now.

Transaction Capital changes the Mobalyz management (JSE: TCP)

This is apparently part of a succession plan initiated in 2022

Transaction Capital’s share price continues to plumb new depths, so the new management team at Mobalyz is going to be highly focused on fixing what used to be called the SA Taxi business.

It helps that founder Jonathan Jawno is coming in as chairman of Mobalyz. It also helps that Dave McAlpin is coming in as deputy chairman, which means he moves on from his role of Nutun CEO (leaving it to John Watling who has been joint CEO of Nutun for the past nine months). Sean Doherty moves from CFO of Mobalyz to CEO and Rob Monteith moves across from his CTO position at Nutun to be CTO at Mobalyz.

Simply put: the group is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Mobalyz.

Terry Kier moves on from the CEO role at Mobalyz, taking on a role focused more on strategic relationships.

This wasn’t enough to stem the bleeding in the share price but at least the group is taking the issues seriously.

I think it is getting to the stage where bringing my in-price down again is worthwhile. This is a far more useful announcement than the fluffy attempt at improving the share price last week with an announcement about a new, unnamed funding partner.

Little Bites:

  • Director dealings:
    • An associate of a director of Equites (JSE: EQU) has reduced a loan facility with Investec from R18 million to R15.8 million, with Equites shares pledged as security.
    • A director of British American Tobacco (JSE: BTI) has bought shares worth nearly £43k.
    • Directors of Choppies (JSE: CHP) seem to be trading amongst themselves in terms of the rights offer currently underway, with Ramachandran Ottapathu picking up BWP 658k worth of rights from another director.
  • Adcock Ingram (JSE: AIP) has managed to repurchase 4.8% of its issued share capital since the general authority was granted in November 2022. The average repurchase price is R51.40 and the current price is R52.90.
  • The currency conversion for the Industrials REIT (JSE: MLI) take-private has been finalised, which means the scheme consideration is R39.25320 per hare.
  • If you are a shareholder in enX (JSE: ENX), be aware that the offer circular for the mandatory offer by African Phoenix and concert parties at R6.41 per share has been sent out.
  • At Eastern Platinum (JSE: EPS), the investigation of certain whistleblower allegations is well underway. These relate to undisclosed related party transactions involving the sale of chrome concentrate at discounted prices. An independent committee investigation is being conducted, with no comments on the allegations given at this stage.
1...858687...175Page 86 of 175

Focuses on making market news and investment concepts accessible, understandable and fun!

Ghost Mail is free to read

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

Partner with Ghost Mail

CONTACT US

© Ghost Mail

Verified by MonsterInsights