Another day, another 52-week high for Thungela. The coal business is now up over 330% since it listed, in a remarkable display of what happens when a heavily undervalued stock comes onto the investor radar. Purple Group also had a cracking day, up 14.8% to close at R1.82. It reached R2.09 intraday, as the Easy Equities owner continued its... um, purple patch.
Perhaps the most interesting move on the day was Tsogo Sun, up 4.9% as investors showed some love for the prospect of a decent tourist season in South Africa. Of course, anything can happen with Covid, but for my own sanity I'm also feeling bullish about a proper Ke Dezemba Boss.
Motus is bolstering its aftermarkets parts business with the acquisition of FAI Automotive plc in the UK, a business which has been around for more than 50 years . This strategic push makes sense to me given the uncertain future role of new car dealerships in an electric vehicle market.
The cash outflow for Motus is GBP27.5 million, considerably higher than FAI's net asset value (excl. cash) of GBP11.2 million, but thankfully less than 3% of Motus' market cap - so shareholders shouldn't lose any sleep. Motus doesn't disclose FAI's net profit but indicates that annual operating profit is above GBP3.2 million.
A2 Investment Partners, the same people who swooped on York's shares recently, will be making a mandatory offer to Novus Holdings shareholders. The print and packaging business has a market cap of around R780 million and is up 165% this year in another incredible example of what happens when a JSE small cap unlocks its value.
The offer has been triggered by A2's control of voting rights moving above the 35% threshold after a scrip dividend in which not all shareholders elected to receive shares instead of cash. The offer price will be 235 cents per share, which takes into account the 50 cents dividend that the company recently paid. Novus shareholders should look out for the circular for the transaction.
In other transactional news, Attacq and Equites have concluded their transaction for some of Attacq's industrial properties. I've written previously on my approval for this deal as an Attacq shareholder. Etion (up over 112% this year) has closed the sale of Lawtrust to Altron.
There was other news from Altron as well. The company has sold the Altron People Solutions business in two parts. iSON Xperiences, a Dubai-based operation, will acquire the business process outsourcing and CXTech part of the division. South African management consultancy LRMG will acquire the Learning Solutions business. Altron's share price is up 17.8% this year.
Finbond was still loss-making in the six months to August 2021. The headline loss per share of between 4.5 and 7.6 cents is at least a significant improvement on the comparable period's loss of 15.4 cents per share.
Happy Monday!
The Finance Ghost
