| Friday 01 April 2022 Good morning Voornaam,
I've put so much effort into The Finance Ghost and being a dad for the past two years that I've really allowed my fitness to deteriorate. The way I see it, I only have two choices now - go back to gym or rebrand, as my current logo just isn't a fair reflection of my ability to run around a football field. In case gym doesn't work out, I've sent an email to Michelin asking if they would let me use a purple version of the Michelin Man logo. This would tie together two of my great loves in life: cars and food. I'll keep you posted.
Northam Platinum released its interim financials for the six months ended December 2021. The number of shares in issue has decreased significantly, so an increase in normalised headline earnings of 18.3% equated to a much higher increase of 52% in normalised headline earnings per share (HEPS). The company now has a 34.68% shareholding in Royal Bafokeng Platinum and is not required to make a mandatory offer (the TRP ruling came out this week). Northam suffered lower sales volumes in this period due to operational issues, so higher commodity prices made all the difference. There were substantial outflows in this period linked to the B-BBEE deal restructure and the Royal Bafokeng investment, leading to an increase in net debt to R14.3 billion. The group expects debt ratios to normalise in line with group targets by the end of 2022.
Meanwhile, Impala Platinum has increased its stake in Royal Bafokeng Platinum to 37.62%.
The drama at Ascendis just never seems to stop. There are now two distinct shareholder groupings who have demanded a general meeting of shareholders to consider director appointments. One of the groups wishes to appoint Amaresh Chetty, Bharti Harie and Carl Neethling to the board. The existing board doesn't li ke this idea and neither do the lenders, which means the debt facilities could be cancelled in the event of their appointment. Of course, this is an excellent tactic to force an outcome desired by the lenders and the current directors. The company has also approached the High Court to try and set aside the demand for the meeting. There's a separate group shareholders asking for the appointment of Maki Modisakeng, Samuel Miller and Francois Theron, which the board and lenders would be in support of. This rather juicy meeting with no fewer than six director appointments to consider will take place on 11th May.
In a move that should bring a few more geeks onto the shareholder register, Renergen has moved on from naming wells after Star Wars characters to naming them after Lord of the Rings characters. The Frodo and Balrog wells (I'm not making this up) were drilled and struck gas. These wells are located less than 1km from the new plant being constructed . Renergen has improved its drilling success rate since deploying the "conviction tool" they developed.
Combined Motor Holdings (CMH) has released a trading statement for the year ended February 2022. HEPS is expected to increase by between 110% and 120%, coming in at between 483.8 cents and 506.9 cents. At the mid-point, CMH is trading on a Price/Earnings multiple of 5.8x.
In a pre-close update, Accelerate Property Fund noted that the loan-to-value (LTV) has been reduced to around 42%. The weighting of the portfolio based on value is now 71.2% retail, 27.2% office and 1.6% industrial. I'm amazed that the office portfolio vacancies are down to 8.2% from 11% at the end of September. That's even better than the retail portfolio (especially in Fourways), with an interesting point being that the Eden Meander mall in fast-growing George only has a 0.2% vacancy rate. The fund has made slow progress in selling local properties but the disposal of the European portfolio in February has helped the company decrease the LTV.
Another property pre-close update came from Safari Investments, which holds 7 retail centres and a day hospital in South Africa and a mixed-use development in Namibia. The LTV is around 38% and rental reversions are slightly positive, so there's a good news story in this portfolio.
Workforce Holdings has released results for the year ended December 2021. Revenue increased by 29.6%, EBITDA was up by 98.4% and HEPS shot the lights out with a 239% increase. EBITDA was 8% higher than in 2019. As lovely as that is, there's still no dividend. Companies are still cautious in this environment.
Premier Fishing and associated listed company African Equity Empowerment Investments are in a court battle to try and force Nedba nk to keep their banking facilities open. An interim interdict was granted as the case has been postpone to the 19th and 20th of April 2022, so for now the accounts remain open.
Tharisa has exercised its option to increase its stake in Karo Mining from 26.8% to 66.3%. The deal value is USD27 million and Tharisa will pay for it with an issuance of shares representing 4.85% of Tharisa's existing share capital.
South Ocean Holdings has released results for the year ended December 2021. Revenue increased by 15% and HEPS shot up by 176% to 36.81 cents. A final dividend of 9 cents per share has been declared.
Thungela Resources has confirmed that Anglo American no longer holds any shares in the company.
If you have a valuation model in Excel on SAB Zenzele Kabili, you may want to update it. The company has disclosed a significant error in the interim numbers in w hich the preference share liability was recognised at transaction price instead of fair value. There are substantial swings in numbers.
Diversified technology company Telemasters has released financial results for the six months ended December 2021. Revenue fell by 21% in this period and the company has slipped into a substantial operating loss. There were substantial negative non-cash items in the financials and the group generated positive cash from operations. This enabled a dividend to be declared.
Conduit Capital released interim results for the six months ended December 2021. Gross written premium in the core insurance business increased by 7.3% and underwriting profit improved by 10.7%. Despite this, the headline loss per share worsened from 8.4 cents to 11.1 cents.
To finish off the week, I've written a piece on EOH's trading statement and balance sheet update. We also welcome back the DealMakers summaries and thought pieces to ease us into the weekend.
Speaking of the weekend - have a good one!
The Finance Ghost
|
|---|
|
|---|
Local and Offshore Market News |
|---|
|
|---|
| Disclaimer
Our content is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. You must do your own analysis before executing any investments or strategic decisions, based on your own circumstances. We do not provide personalised recommendations or views as to whether an investment approach or corporate strategy is suited to the needs of a specific individual or entity. You should take independent financial advice from a suitably qualified individual who gives due regard to your personal circumstances.
Whilst every care is taken, we accept no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in any of our content.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in our content belong solely to the author or quoted individuals and/or entities, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organisation, committee or other group or individual, or any of our affiliates or brand partners. |
|---|
|
|---|
|
|
