Monday is likely to be dominated by the news of cyber-security issues at insurance group Liberty but here are some of the small and mid-cap stories from Friday:
New Mining Charter rolled out
The previous iteration of the proposed new Mining Charter was viewed as investment negative. The Department of Mineral Resources has issued an updated version of the Charter which the investment community will attempt to digest over the next few weeks. There is excellent coverage of the new Charter on MiningMX.com and this article is particularly interesting – http://www.miningmx.com/top-story/33254-minerals-council-rails-surprise-inclusions-govt-s-charter/
Invicta with a shocker
We have previously highlighted the forced sales of the group CEO in this stock. At 17:45 on Friday, Invicta announced that headline per share are likely to drop 81% for the full year ended 31 March 2018. Investors here might argue that this is price sensitive information and directors dealings – forced or otherwise – should not have gone ahead with this information due to hit the market. In a market currently short on trust, this is potentially a blow to investors.
Basil Read collapses
The construction group saw its share price drop 88% on Friday as it announced it was going into business rescue.
JSE warns issuers
A number of JSE-listed businesses have failed to submit provisional financial statements and have been warned by the JSE. These are: African Dawn Capital, Esor, Gaia Infrastructure, Gold Brands Investments, Imbalie Beauty, Visual International and WG Wearne.
Silverbridge earnings weaken
The technology group warned on Friday that its earnings for the full year are likely to drop by more than 20%. Based on its previous financials, Silverbridge trades on a price to earnings multiple of 3.25% and offers a 6.3% dividend yield.
GAIA gets its financials out
Infrastructure and energy group GAIA managed to get its financials out a bit late but with some positive news for shareholders. Revenue rose 15% to R62m and shareholders picked up a 42c/share dividend. In commentary accompanying the financials, GAIA told shareholders: “GAIA has a diversified pipeline of approximately R1.7 billion of exclusive investment opportunities for which it requires equity funding to execute. The Company continues to engage with the equity capital markets to raise funding to enable execution of these value-accretive investments in accordance with the Company’s Investment Policy for the benefit of its stakeholders. The investment pipeline yields are above target investment return of CPI +6% (gross of fees) on a blended basis.”
Further purchases at ARB:
As previously mentioned, Alan Burke at ARB Holdings has been a regular buyer of his own stock. The director acquired a further 14174 shares at R5.50. ARB trades on a price to earnings multiple of 7.9 and offers a 4.39% dividend yield.
CSG director sells
Pieter Dry – Executive director at CSG – announced that he had sold 2m shares at R1.25/share in an off-market transaction. CSG trades on a price to earnings multiple of 6 and offers a 3.7% dividend yield.
New highs
Shares in Altron and Stenprop hit new 52-week highs during Friday trade. Altron is up 38% year to date and Stenprop is up 17%.
Vunani “jumps”
The financial services group saw its shares “jump” 113% on Friday to R2.75/share. However this needs to be seen in the context of errant trade on 14 June 2018 which saw the share fall by over 100%. 49 450 shares were traded on Friday and Vunani trades on a price to earnings multiple of 10 and offers 2.25% dividend yield. CFO Tafadzwa Mika also announced that he purchased 10 000 shares at R2.74 on the open market.
