| Monday 17 January 2022 Good morning Voornaam,
I highlighted last week that NEPI Rockcastle was in the process of raising EUR500 million via the issuance of a green corporate bond. This is a use-of-proceeds structure where the funds must be allocated to eligible green projects in the portfolio. The issue was oversubscribed, with demand for over EUR1.5 billion in these bonds. There was strong demand from several European jurisdictions, with asset managers and banks leading the charge through the door to get these bonds. The bonds have a 2% fixed coupon and were priced at 98.713%. Explained simply, this means that investors wanted a higher return than 2%, so they were happy to pay R98.713 for the bonds for every R2 in annual return. This means the effective return is 2.03% per year. Alphamin shareholders are having a laugh, with the company closing another 6.76% higher. The company's strong quarterly update (which I wrote about previously here) has driven a spike in the share price of over 40% in the space of a week. Vivo Energy (a large fuel service station business) is in the process of being acquired and delisted by Vitol, a global energy company. In the midst of this process (and perhaps well aware of the risk to his job as a result of the merger), the CFO of Vivo has resigned and will be joining Aston Martin Lagonda Group Holdings as CFO. Although Aston Martin's financial position is anything but easy, I suspect a company car helps sweeten the deal. There was some pushing and shoving along the way, but the Arrowhead-Fairvest deal will be implemented by the end of January as Arrowhead shareholders have officially approved the deal. The initial structure was fo r Fairvest to acquire Arrowhead, a move which the latter initially resisted. After much deliberation, the structure was amended to work the other way around, with Arrowhead acquiring Fairvest due to complexities around the capital structure. The Fairvest leadership team has also been appointed to the board as they will take the combined group forward. The eventual deal is effectively a reverse takeover. AltX-listed company PSV Holdings is in its death throes. The company is in business rescue and the main trading subsidiary has been liquidated. The company needs to be recapitalised just to allow the audits for the last two financial years to proceed. An announcement on Friday reminded shareholders that the business rescue is dependent on the recapitalisation of the company, otherwise it will face liquidation with no prospect of any payment to shareholders. It probably doesn't make much difference to existing shareholders either way, as I suspect that t he recapitalisation would dilute them into oblivion. Pembury Lifestyle Group hoped to make a success of offering investors access to a portfolio of private education businesses and retirement homes. After financial issues came to the fore and its former auditors even tried to liquidate the group to recover fees, the group disposed of the retirement villages and has been trying to survive based on purely the schools. It's all a complete mess, really. Things are so bad that the Pembury website is incomplete and SENS link points you to the Moneyweb page on Pembury! The company is suspended from trading and the JSE is not allowing certain transactions to go through without a full circular being issued, including attempts to recapitalise the company. Considering the company can't even pay its most recent auditors (adding to a list of professionals who have fought to recover fees), I wouldn't hold my breath for any improvement here. p> Today's feature articles are on Stor-Age's trading update and Merafe's news that the company will be expanding beyond chrome. There's also a new Magic Markets episode for you to enjoy. Listener and Premium subscriber Willet Maseko took the mic and hosted us on our own show, asking about our investment process and even whether we agree all the time! It was a great experience and you can listen to it here. Finally, Chris Gilmour is back with an update on the macroeconomic and political news that is moving markets. Good luck for a new week! The Finance Ghost
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