We begin with education business Curro, which released a trading statement noting that recurring HEPS for the year to December 2021 will increase by between 2.6% and 13.2%. The earnings themselves have increased by between 30.3% and 43.7%, but the large rights offer in September 2020 resulted in far more shares being in issue, so the per share growth is disappointing.
OneLogix released its results for the six months ended November. The company may be taken private at R3.30 per share, though no firm offer has been made yet. The latest results aren't pretty, with revenue up 21% but HEPS down a huge 89%. No dividend has been declared. The destruction of profitability in this period was due to a freak hailstorm in September at the Umlaas Road facility, the civil unrest, once-off retrenchment costs and additional lease-related costs. Despite the awful result on the income statement in this period, the group is well capitalised and highly cash generative.
DRDGOLD has released a trading statement for the six months ended December. As I've mentioned before, mining businesses generally trade based on commodity price movements rather than earnings updates, unless there are negative or positive surprises in production volumes or costs. DRD's HEPS for the period will drop between 43% and 53%, driven by a revenue decrease of 16%.
The rand gold price achieved fell by 13% vs. the comparable period and volumes dropped as well. Yields decreased at Ergo Mining and improved at Far West Gold Recoveries. Cash operating costs increased by 11%, so DRD needs to be careful of margins being squeezed. Importantly, the company has no debt on the balance sheet. The share price barely reacted to the announcement.
Although Bauba Resources has been listed on the JSE since 2010, you've probably never heard of the company. The mining exploration gro up has had a tough journey in the chrome and PGM development space. Despite all this, infrastructure and construction group Raubex has clearly spotted an opportunity here.
Raubexhas acquired a further 24.7% in Bauba, taking its stake to around 51% of shares in issue. This means that Raubex needs to make a mandatory offer to all other shareholders in Bauba, except Pelagic Resources (a Singaporean company) with which Raubex is acting "in concert" for purposes of Takeover Law. Together, these companies hold 73% of Bauba. The price is R0.42 per share and Mazars has been appointed as independent expert to opine on whether the offer is fair and reasonable. The final opinion will be included in the circular.
If 90% of the remaining Bauba shareholders accept the offer, Raubex can use s124 of the Companies Act to force the other 10% to sell their shares. This would then result in a delisting of Bauba. The share price was tradin g at R0.38 before the announcement went out.
Sanlam has renewed its cautionary announcement regarding discussions with Allianz SE about the African business units (with the exception of South Africa). Time will tell whether the outcome will be something exciting for Sanlam shareholders.
For reasons I don't understand, Texton Property Fund seems to think it has become an asset manager. Instead of buying back its own shares or acquiring properties, the company is investing in a property fund managed by Blackstone. A position of USD4.4 million on 1 October 2021 has now been increased to USD7.5 million.
Altron CEO Mteto Nyati is stepping down from the company and has sold R8 million worth of shares. The reason given for the sale is that the shares have vested and the expiry date for exercise is imminent under Altron share plan rules.
Sabcap has confirmed that i t is a 44.8% shareholder in Apex Partners and thus has look-through exposure to Ascendis Medical, provided the proposed Ascendis transactions to settle the debt go ahead. The revenue of that business in Ascendis for the year to June 2021 was R983 million.
Finally, as is the norm on a Friday, we have the summaries of corporate activity from DealMakers to finish off the week.
Have a won derful weekend!
The Finance Ghost
