Barloworld led the way among the Top 100 yesterday and deservedly so. The company has done extremely well over the pandemic and looks to be in great shape. For that reason, the company earned itself a
feature article this morning.
Accelerate Property Fund will dispose of nine European retail properties in Austria and Slovakia at a total valuation of EUR87.4 million. The buyer is Slate Asset Management, a global alternative investment platform focused on real estate. The gross proceeds for Accelerate are just under EUR40 million and will be used to reduce the loan-to-value ratio by primarily settling offshore debts and a portion of the South African debt.
BHP Group and Woodside Petroleum have signed a binding agreement to merge BHP's oil and gas portfolio with Woodside, structured as Woodside acquiring BHP Petroleum International and issuing Woodside shares as payment. The merged entity will be the largest energy company listed on the ASX. After the deal, BHP will briefl y hold around 48% in Woodside before distributing those shares to BHP shareholders as an in-specie dividend.
Etion Limited operates a number of tech-related business and recently disposed of its Lawtrust investment to Altron. For the six months to September, the group expects HEPS from continuing operations (i.e. excluding Lawtrust) to be 4.16 cents per share vs. a loss of 2.59 cents in the prior corresponding period. The share price of this R175 million small cap was up 9.7% by afternoon trade.
Netcare has released results for the year ended September. As flagged several times before in InceConnect, the hospital groups have recovered strongly as the pandemic has slowed, although the narrative of a 4th wave seems to be picking up steam which is a worry. Netcare's operating profit increased 32.5% and HEPS is 61.5 cents per share. A dividend of 34 cents per share has been declared.
Notably, more s hareholders voted in favour of Sasol's climate change plan at its AGM than its remuneration report. I can't comment on whether the climate change report was deserving of such adoration, but I do wonder if this isn't a case of investors talking a big game about ESG and then not following through.
Finally, PPC reported results for the six months ended September. Group EBITDA is up 13% year-on-year and 29% vs. the corresponding period in 2019. EBITDA margin in South Africa and Botswana cement has increased to 18.7%, well ahead of the two prior years. Although a net R309 million in debt has been repaid and HEPS has increased from 30 cents to 55 cents per share, there is still no dividend as the group restructuring has not yet been completed.
PPC's share price is up over 280% this year but is down nearly 12% over 5 years. When you play in risky stocks, timing the market is everything.
If you missed y esterday's
Magic Markets update, you can listen to Ep 52
on our website here. Mohammed Nalla and I discussed trends from the Q3 earnings cycle in the US and the possible impacts of inflation on different sectors.
Have a great day in the markets!
The Finance Ghost
