Nampak has successfully raised R1 billion by way of a partially underwritten renounceable rights offer. The offer was oversubscribed with gross demand equating to more than 138% of the available rights offer shares. A total of 5,714,286 shares will be issued at R175 per share.
As part of its capital optimisation strategy, Investec Ltd acquired a further 101,332 Investec Plc shares on the open market at an average price of R105.48 per share.
Ascendis Health has advised shareholders that it has initiated a process to investigate and progress a potential delisting of the company from the JSE. Discussions have been entered into with CAN Capital IHC, an entity owned and controlled by Carl Neethling – the current CEO of Ascendis. Shareholders have been warned that while no offer has been made, if any offer is made, it is not expected to be at a significant premium to the current traded price of 69 cents per Ascendis share.
Optasia, a global fintech company in the Ethos Capital Partners stable, may consider a secondary listing on the JSE in the next 18 months as Ethos seeks to exit its investment. In November last year Brait, in which Ethos has an c.12% stake, hinted at the possible listing of Virgin Active in the medium to long term.
Luxe, the jewellery company which owns Arthur Kaplan and NWJ, was suspended by the JSE in August 2022 for failure to release its financial results. The company faced a further blow this week following a high court judgement placing it in liquidation. Earlier this year Luxe, without notifying the market, had its subsidiaries placed in liquidation. The application to have Luxe placed in liquidation was brought about by Richline SA, a jewellery manufacturer.
Several listed companies reported repurchasing shares. They were:
Gemfields has repurchased an additional 5,200,000 ordinary shares at an aggregate price of R3.21 per share. The repurchased shares will be held as treasury shares. The total number of shares in issue including treasury shares is 1,221,918,104.
Prosus and Naspers continued with their open-ended share repurchase programmes. During the period 18 – 22 September 2023, a further 3,873,865 Prosus shares were repurchased for an aggregate €110,83 million and a further 340,108 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R1,1 billion.
Glencore intends to complete its programme to repurchase the company’s ordinary shares on the open market for an aggregate value of $1,2 billion by February 2024. This week the company repurchased a further 9,650,000 shares for a total consideration of £43,73 million.
South32 continued with its programme of repurchasing shares in the open market. This week a further 735,515 shares were acquired at an aggregate cost of A$2,44 million.
As part of Investec Ltd’s share repurchase programme, the company reported this week that it had repurchased 152,647 shares at an average price per share of R104.63. Since November 21 2022, the company has repurchased 13,78 million shares at a cost of R1,48 billion.
Profit warnings and cautionary notices issued this week
Seven companies issued profit warnings this week: Quantum Foods, York Timber, Sable Exploration and Mining, Wesizwe Platinum, Safari Investments RSA, Buka Investments and EOH.
Seven companies issued or withdrew a cautionary notice: Life Healthcare, Finbond, Ascendis Health, Conduit Capital, Ayo Technology Solutions, African Equity Empowerment Investments and Steinhoff Investments.
DealMakers is SA’s M&A publication.
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