Sanlam has renewed its cautionary regarding its discussions with Allianz SE. The groups are exploring strategic alternatives in relation to their respective African business units, other than in South Africa. This may have an impact on Santam as well, which holds certain African businesses alongside Sanlam.
Investec has increased its earnings guidance for the year ended March 2022, thanks to a substantial recovery in both the South African and UK businesses. HEPS is expected to be between 49p and 53p, an increase of between 84% and 99% vs. the prior year. Things sound better across all key financial metrics.
Vodacom has confirmed that it bought 110MHz of high demand spectrum in the ICASA auction. Vodacom w ill pay R5.38 billion for this, fairly similar to the R5.2 billion that MTN is paying for 100MHz. The most interesting thing about this is that MTN announcement on Thursday described the pricing as "comparing favourably with global benchmark averages" and Vodacom described it on Friday as being "high" - I'm not clued up enough on the tech and the different spectrum bands to comment here, but the divergence in messaging is surprising.
Impala Platinum (Implats) continues to mop up Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) shares. It has acquired a further 0.75% of shares in issue, taking the holding to 36.41%. The Implats offer is still open and there's still no word from the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP) on whether Northam Platinum will be required to make an offer for RBPlat as well.
CSG Holdings is under offer from ARC F und, which already holds a 24.8% shareholding in the company. The offer price is 35 cents per share. The latest news on the deal is that the Competition Commission has approved the deal, so the only outstanding condition is the TRP issuing a compliance certificate. CSG expects this condition to be met before the end of the month. Shareholders who do not accept the offer will remain as shareholders in the unlisted company.
Anglo American has announced the commissioning of the Benguela Gem diamond recovery vessel, a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government. The magic words for any project are there: "ahead of schedule and below budget" - a rare outcome indeed! This vessel will add 500,00 carats of high value diamonds to annual marine production, an increase of around 45%. The total investment is $420 million of which $210 million is attributable to Anglo American. Fascinatingly, the announcement notes th at diamond recovery is the single biggest contributor to Namibia's economy!
There's more news from Anglo American, with the company announcing a memorandum of understanding with EDF Renewables to work together towards meeting 100% of Anglo's operational electricity requirements in South Africa through renewables by 2030. Anglo already runs on renewables in South America, with 56% of the company's global grid supply to be sourced from renewables by 2023. Through tapping into our beautiful country's abundant solar and wind characteristics, 3 - 5 GW of renewable electricity and storage will be built over the next decade through this deal. This is great news for all of us!
Master Drilling Group has updated its trading statement. HEPS for the year ended December 2021 is expected to be between 188.70 and 193.00 cents per share. That's a monumental increase compared to 42.60 cents in 2020. I went back and checked the 2019 HEPS result to give more context to this. It was 148.8 cents per share, so the 2021 result is solid growth vs. 2019 of around 27.5%. Detailed results are expected to be released today.
DRA Global, a mining engineering company listed in Australia and on the JSE, has updated the market on the fight in court with Liqhobong Mining Development Company (LMDC). DRA filed claims totalling R68 million and LMDC filed counterclaims for R289 million. The end result was mixed, with DRA awarded R1.76 million and LMDC awarded R31.3 million. Interest, cost orders and expert fees also apply. DRA hadn't made any provision for this amount in its financials, so the full hit will be recognised this year. DRA is determining whether part of the award may be recoverable from its insurers.
Wesizwe Platinum restarted construction at the Bakubung Platinum Mine in mid-February, so I'm not sure why it has taken them a month to tell the market this. An agreement hasn't been reached with the surrounding community either, so there is ongoing risk of further disruptions. The company is under pressure, as the mine is behind schedule and will need to start servicing its loan.
Fortress Property Fund has found itself in the hot seat recently, with an unusual and surprising attempt to treat FFA and FFB shareholders equally for the purposes of paying a distribution. The deal put forward by the company was to choose between an equal distribution for both classes or no distribution at all, which immediately came under criticism on Twitter. This is at odds with the company's memorandum of incorporation, which governs the different classes of shares. The company has suffered a reputational blow as FFA shareholders voted against the proposal, choosing to forego a distribution rather than see th e FFB shareholders participate equally.
Chris Gilmour brings you his view on the macroeconomic and political news moving the markets, which you can
read here.
Have a lovely start to your short week!
The Finance Ghost
