These are some of the stories from the JSE catching our eye on Friday 1 June 2018 in the small and mid-cap sectors:
Nu-World directors continue to sell
For the third time since interim results were announced in April 2018, directors at Nu-World Holdings announced the sale of shares. In the first announcement, non-executive director Frank Davidson sold out of a structured product (which gave exposure to Nu-World) to the tune of R437 500. Executive Director Dean MacDonald sold R116 000 of shares at R35/share.
Grindrod faces dissenting shareholders
With more than 30% of shareholders voting against the remuneration policy at the Annual General Meeting, Grindrod has announced it will engage with shareholders. Other sticking points included the re-appointment of the Deloitte audit partner and 23% of shareholders voted against the ability to issue new shares for cash.
Afrocentric unloads Jasco
Investment holdings group Afrocentric has announced it will offload 44.2m shares in JSE-listed technology group Jasco. The shares will be sold to Community Investment Holdings for R32m. The proceeds will be used to invest in Afrocentric’s healthcare business.
Master Drilling takes out subsidiary
Master Drilling has exercised a call option to take out the remaining 60% shareholder in Bergteamet Raiseboring. Master Drilling is presently down 32% year to date and trades on a price to earnings multiple of 7.6 times.
Spear raises new money
Property group Spear REIT has announced that is has raised R118.5m through a private placement of new shares.
Sugar hits Crookes
A sharp decline in the price of sugar has seen agriculture group Crookes Brothers warn of a loss when the company reports results for the full year 2018. Crookes is down 16% year to date.
GAIA to miss reporting deadline
Infrastructure and investment group GAIA has warned that it will not comply with JSE reporting requirements and will not deliver its interim results on time. The company attributes this to the integration of new auditors, the departure of a its previous financial director and structure of its Noblesfontein transaction. Shares in GAIA were down 7.6% but on volumes of 800 shares at R6/share.
Hulisani banking on IPP developments
Having acquired “Viable Assets”, Hulisani has reported a set of results for the year ended 28 February 2018 reflecting a R113m pre-tax loss. This was negatively impacted by a R60m impairment and a R25m fair-value adjustment. The company told shareholders: “Given that Hulisani’s projects pipeline comprises of a few of the projects with recently signed PPAs, Hulisani could benefit from the signing of the PPAs and enhance its returns. Hulisani also has a healthy pipeline of secondary opportunities and is in a good position to target the higher yielding ones. Hulisani’s current projects pipeline in the secondary market is approximately R2.25bn in the focusprojects – this is in relation to operating energy assets within South Africa. Hulisani is assessing various forms of funding to enable the conclusion of the focus projects in the pipeline.”
Metair looking at Slovenian transaction
Shares in Metair were down 3.3% on Friday following the announcement of a potential deal in Slovenia. The share has been flat for the year and currently trades on a price to earnings multiple of 6 and a dividend yield of 4%.
Insimbi sellers dry up
One of the shares we have been watching quite closely is small-cap industrial group Insimbi who once again delivered a solid set of financial results. The share was up 4.8% on Friday with no sellers in the market after 10 604 shares traded hands.
