You are probably old enough to remember a virus called "Covid-19" that used to be in the headlines, before being replaced by Putin-22. Whilst there is sadly no vaccine for the latter, the former does have several vaccines and our very own Aspen is one of the manufacturers of the Johnson & Johnson version. Aspen has finally concluded a deal with J&J to manufacture an Aspen-branded vaccine called "Aspenovax" - no marketing budget was harmed in the making of this product. It will be sold in the rest of Africa in a deal that will last until 31 December 2026. I'm trying not to contemplate a world that is still dealing with Covid in 2026.
Capital & Regional Plc announced results for the year to December 2021. The UK-focused REIT's major shareholder is Growthpoint. The company notes that for the first time in four years, there was a six-month pe riod of stable valuations. Impressively, renewals during the year were achieved at a premium of 7.3% to previous rentals. Occupancy is at 93%.
The problem has been the debt, with the loan-to-value ratio having spiked to 72% at June 2021. It has been reduced to 49%, a far more acceptable level but still on the high side. Imminent proceeds from disposals will reduce it by over 200bps. There's no dividend (unsurprisingly with this balance sheet) and the net asset value per share has fallen 35% in the past year measured in GBP. The local share price is down almost 39% over the past year.
Tongaat Hulett's rights offer, which would be partially underwritten by Magister Investments, has been approved by the Competition Commission in South Africa and the equivalent regulators in Botswana and Namibia. Approvals in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are outstanding. The bigger regulatory hurdle relates to the Takeover Special Committee, which was approached to review the Takeover Regulation Panel's decision to grant Magister an exemption from needing to make a mandatory offer to all shareholders. The determination is expected to be made on 11th March, so Tongaat shareholders should keep an eye out for an announcement.
Dipula Income Fund is in the process of reworking its capital structure. The fund is repurchasing the Dipula A shares in exchange for 2.4 Dipula B shares per A share. If you are a Dipula shareholder, you should check out the circular that is now available. The independent expert has opined that the offer is fair and reasonable. Even though only Dipula is involved here, the company is effectively transacting with two separate groups of shareholders, hence the importance of that assessment.
Imbalie Beauty has released its circular detailing a mandatory offer by B&B Media to acquire all the shares for 0.9 cents per share. If you're an unfortunate shar eholder who has ridden it all the way to almost zero, look out for that circular.
Wesizwe Platinum took a dive after releasing a trading statement noting that HEPS of 3.17 cents in the year ended December 2020 has swung into a loss of between 1.16 and 1.80 cents per share in 2021. The company will release detailed results later this week.
In the latest episode of
Magic Markets, Craig Antonie of AnBro Capital Investments joined us to discuss their approach to growth investing in the Unicorn Global Growth Fund. We had a really insightful conversation around managing a portfolio through such volatile times, including a detailed chat on how the fund is different to Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation Fund.
Listen to the episode here.
Good luck in the markets today!
The Finance Ghost
