Dis-Chem is in the process of acquiring three properties from companies controlled by the Saltzman family, the founders of Dis-Chem. As this is a small related party transaction, an independent expert is required to give an opinion on whether the deal is fair to shareholders. BDO has finished its report as independent expert and has concluded that the terms of the transaction are fair.
Packaging business Transpaco has released a trading statement for the six months ended December 2021. It's a banger of an update, with HEPS from continuing operations expected to be 36.4% to 43.4% higher than the corresponding period last year. Including discontinued operations only has a small negative impact, with overall HEPS up between 35.1% and 42%. Full results are expected on 22 February. The share price rallied over 6% in response to this update.
Although it has a debt listing rather than an equity listing, T ransnet is relevant to all of us as the infrastructure touches many industries. As we've highlighted many times in InceConnect, the rail infrastructure in particular has been a major issue for our local mining companies. Transnet has successfully raised over R2 billion in senior unsecured notes ranging from a tenor of 1 to 12 years. The bond auction was 1.28x oversubscribed. If we are lucky, perhaps some of the money will be used to fix the railways.
In case you are in the unfortunate position of being a Nutritional Holdings shareholder, you'll want to refer to the update that came out yesterday. Long story short: more board resignations and lots of blaming of executives contracting Covid for the lack of compilation of reports (this really gives "long Covid" new meaning). There is supposedly an injection of funding coming and a "new strategy" - whatever that means. The Designated Advisor and Company Secretary have also both resigned. It's too pain ful to continue writing about this mess, so I'll just stop there.
There are four articles to keep you busy this morning.
The first is on
Sappi, which
released a great update that sent the share price 20% higher in morning trade. It's a great example of the power of volume growth combined with pricing power.
The final article today is on an investment holding company that you may not be familiar with:
Universal Partners. They have a fascinating portfolio, including a dentistry operation in the UK that is growing at pace!
I've written about the latest quarterly update here.
With the next episode of
Magic Markets imminent, make sure you don't fall behind. In Episode 61, we discussed key concepts related to the Fed, inflation and yields. Understanding these macroeconomic concepts is essential to managing your investments.
Listen to it here.
Have a good day in the markets!
The Finance Ghost
