Reporting season is in full swing at the moment and investors are looking for a chance to catch their breath.

These are the interesting small and mid-cap stories from Thursday 31 May 2018:

Hulisani
As a minority shareholder (and somebody who is bullish on the story), it is frustrating to see the company taking R75m of impairments less than 1 year after identifying “Viable Assets”. The company warned that headline earnings would be lower when it delivered full year financial results.

Efora loss widens
Efora Energy Limited saw its headline loss per share rise to 42c or R175m for the 12 months ended 28 February 2018. Revenue rose 126% to R2.6bn with the inclusion of the AfricOil earnings.

Analyst consensus upgrades and downgrades
According to Sharenet, analysts updated Coronation Fund Managers to a “Buy” while Spar was rated a “Hold”.

A bad Taste to swallow
Franchise group Taste Holdings reported a R241m annual loss as the group struggled with a sluggish economy and to manage its growth strategy. While there are few bright spots in these financial results, the share now trades at below its Tangible Net Asset Value (TNAV) of 69c/share.

AdVtech facing push-back
Shareholders in the listed education group pushed back against a number of resolutions at the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM). The company saw 43% vote against the reappointment of auditing group Deloitte & Touche and 27% vote against the remuneration policy for the execs.

Pan African seller … it’s complicated
The Pan African Resources share price has been under significant pressure for the past 6 months with a seller driving the price down. It has now been confirmed that the seller is PAR Gold who have disposed of 130m shares. PAR is in fact a subsidiary of Pan African Resources and the proceeds of this sale will be used to fund operating and restructuring requirements.

Renergen secures off-take agreement with SAB
Alternative energy player Renergen delivered financial results for the 12 month period which saw a R40.6m loss for the year. One of the interesting announcements out of the financial results was that the company had secured an off-take agreement with SAB for the introduction of new-age fuels in the company fleets.

WG Wearne in trouble
Construction group WG Wearne has become the latest listed business to announce that the slow economy has brought to its knees. Wearne told shareholders that it had terminated the Milost transaction and would be entering into discussions with major shareholders around recapitalisation.

Go Life to miss deadline
The healthcare group which is listed on both the AltX and Mauritius exchanges has indicated that its financial results will not be ready in time for the deadline set by the Mauritius exchange. The illiquid small-cap is up 27%.

CSG delivers again
Contract services group CSG Holdings has once again delivered a credible set of earnings with revenue up 22% to R2.13bn and an after-tax profit of R116m. Shareholders were also rewarded with a 5c/share dividend. The share trades on a price to earnings multiple of 5.8 times earnings and offers a 3.9% dividend yield.

Huge performance
ICT firm Huge Group delivered a 168% increase in operating profit for the year and grew its customer base from 15 000 clients to 45 000 clients. Despite the strong operating profit, investors may want to interrogate the cash-flow statement carefully. The Huge share price has risen 1207% in the past 5 years.