- Retail-focused fund Hyprop has released a pre-close update with some incredibly interesting insights into the retail property portfolio in Eastern Europe in particular. Although it is obviously a different market to South Africa, the trend in metrics since mask mandates were abolished in March 2022 is quite something to see. I dedicated a feature article to Hyprop that you can read here.
- Emira Property Fund’s B-BBEE deal was concluded in May 2017 with Letsema Holdings and Tamela Holdings, each of which held a 2.5% stake in the group after the deal was implemented. 90% of the price was funded by debt (40% from a third party and 50% as a vendor loan from Emira) for a five-year period which expired on 27 June 2022. The deal has been extended to 2027, including the guarantee provided by Emira to the lender. As Letsema is an associate of an Emira director, this is a small related party transaction that requires sign-off from an independent expert. Moore Corporate Services Cape Town has opined that the terms are commercially reasonable. No shareholder approval is required. The group also released a pre-close operational update, which I wrote a feature article on here.
- There’s very bad news for Rebosis shareholders, with the property fund announcing that the dream deal to sell a multi-billion rand office portfolio was, in fact, a dream. Ulricraft, a special purpose vehicle spearheaded by Vunani Capital Partners, didn’t meet the deadline to raise the funding for the R3.35 billion transaction to buy the properties on a blended yield of 9.4%. The deadline had already been extended from 22 April to 22 June. The board of Rebosis won’t give another extension, so this deal is dead. Rebosis has promised to communicate a refinancing plan to shareholders by the end of July, as the fund simply isn’t sustainable in current form. The share price of Rebosis ordinary shares (JSE: REA) fell by 35%.
- Safari Investments, a REIT (property fund), released results for the year ended March 2022. Property revenue increased by 14% and the group managed to improve its cost to income ratio, which is impressive in this environment. A mythical unicorn emerged a few paragraphs down in the announcement: positive reversions of +1.15%! This means that new leases were signed at a higher rate than the expired leases, which is almost unheard of in the sector currently. The loan-to-value (LTV) is down to 37% and the net asset value (NAV) per share has increased to 855 cents. The share price at R5.70 is a 33.3% discount to NAV. The total dividend for the year of 57 cents per share puts the fund on a yield of 10% on the nose.
- If you haven’t been in the markets for a while, you may be shocked to learn that the JSE is listed on the JSE! The JSE as a company is publicly listed on the exchange that it operates and derives revenue from. For the six months ending June 2022, headline earnings per share (HEPS) is between 24% and 32% higher than the comparative period, coming in at between 520.92 cents and 554.53 cents. The group attributes this to higher revenue growth in all segments, active cost management and higher net finance income. The share price was down 6.6% this year before the announcement, so it will be interesting to see how it reacts.
- Sasol has announced an update to the sale of its 30% interest in The Republic of Mozambique Pipeline Investments Company, also known as ROMPCO. I am quite sure that a few laughs have been had around the coffee machine about that name. Interestingly, a deal was originally announced in May 2021 that would’ve seen the stake sold to a consortium comprising Reatile Group and a fund managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers. The other shareholders in ROMPCO quickly romped their way to exercising a pre-emptive right to buy the stake, effectively shutting out the consortium. The deal has now closed, with an initial payment of R4.1 billion and a further R1 billion payable if certain milestones are achieved by June 2024. Sasol retains a 20% stake in ROMPCO and agreements related to the pipeline and the transport of gas to Secunda are unaffected. This is great news for the Sasol balance sheet and takes the company a step closer to rewarding shareholders with dividends once more.
- Argent Industrial has released results for the year ended March 2022. Revenue increased by 23.7% and EBITDA by 32.2%. HEPS was a whopping 55.7% higher at 339.2 cents. A final dividend of 42 cents per share was declared. At a closing price of R14.21, Argent is trading on a Price/Earnings multiple of just 4.2x. This R800 million market cap industrials group is looking interesting! It owns an array of businesses including Xpanda, American Shutters, JetMaster and many others.
- Irongate shareholders voted almost unanimously in favour of the deal with Charter Hall. This is a key milestone of course, with a few regulatory approvals to go before Irongate shareholders get paid out and the company delists.
- Recently-listed Southern Palladium has awarded a drilling contract to Geomech Africa, with the phase 1 programme to commence in mid-July 2022. The results will be used in pre-feasibility studies, which in turn will be used for a mining right application. Phase 2 drilling will be over a wider area and will be used for more accurate life-of-mine planning. The goal of Phase 2 would be to upgrade the project to Inferred Mineral Resource status. If you have any interest in junior mining (whether financial, intellectual or both) then you’ll want to keep an eye on updates from this company.
- In case you’ve ever wondered how much money Magda Wierzycka and her husband Simon Peile have made from Sygnia, here’s a clue: through a restructuring of the family’s investment interests, nearly R831 million worth of Sygnia shares have changed hands. Very importantly, this isn’t a sell-down of the stake in Sygnia – it’s only a restructure, so don’t panic! I’m just including it here to give you an idea of what serious wealth really looks like.
- Sable Exploration and Mining has released a trading statement for the year ended February 2022, noting that the loss per share will be between 127 cents and 155 cents. They describe this as a “decrease in the loss” from the 76.21 cents loss reported in the prior year. This kind of maths is why you need to stay in school, kids.
- Salungano Group (previously Wescoal) released a trading statement for the year ended March 2022. HEPS has swung massively into the green, from a loss of 2.87 cents to a profit of between 5.70 and 6.60 cents. There’s not much trade in the stock and it closed yesterday at R1.46, with this announcement coming out after the close.
- In a trading statement covering the six months to the end of February 2022 (yes – this is long overdue), Trustco noted that net asset value per share has increased from 1.48 cents at the end of August 2021 to between 3.95 and 4.25 cents. Just four hours later (presumably after a hugely productive afternoon), the company then released results confirming this number as 4.13 Namibian dollars, so the trading statement was incorrect to refer to those numbers as being cents rather than NAD. It’s also ridiculous to see a trading statement coming out four hours before results.
- York Timbers has been dealing with a strike by NUMSA employees at its Escarpment operations since 25th April. The Labour Court confirmed the strike as being unprotected on 7th June, leading to ultimatums to return to work as well as disciplinary proceedings. Investors will be more interested to know that operations have been reinstated, though not yet at full capacity.
- Marcel Golding has entered into agreements to buy shares in two listed companies in which he is a director. There’s an agreement to buy R15.4 million worth of shares in Rex Trueform in February 2023 at a price of R18 per share (current price R14.90). There’s also a future purchase of nearly R10 million in shares in African and Overseas Enterprises at a price of R27 per share (current price R16.96). I’m not close to the details of what is going on here but as director dealings go, these are big ones.
- The CEO of Fairvest’s family trust has bought another R1.5 million worth of shares in the property fund.
- Capitalworks is a long-standing partner of RFG Holdings (known to many as Rhodes Food Group) and holds a large stake in the group. Shares worth another R195k have been added to the position. This is tiny in the world of private equity but it does indicate ongoing commitment to the business.
- A private entity related to two Brimstone directors (including CEO Mustaq Brey) has bought shares in Brimstone worth nearly R53k. It’s not an amount to get excited about but it’s still a positive signal, as I guess they could’ve punted on crypto instead (or just spent it on a nice holiday).
- Speaking of small director purchases, a director of Kaap Agri has bought shares worth around R90k in the company.
- Yet another example is the CEO of Spear REIT, who bought another R95k worth of shares for his kids.
- Andre du Plessis has retired from his position as CFO of Capitec, which opened the door for Grant Hardy to be appointed as his successor. Hardy will take over from 1 July and his bank account will no doubt thank him.
- A prescribed officer of Thungela has sold shares in the company worth nearly R143k.
