Sasfin's shares don't trade that much. Yesterday was different, though, after it alerted the market that it had entered discussions, following up two hours later with the revelation that Dutch private equity company Arise was interested in buying a stake in the niche bank and financial services group. Its shares are fairly illiquid as more than 40% of its stock is owned by its founders, the Sassoon family, while empowerment partner Wiphold holds about 25%. It will be interesting to see whether the Sassoons are willing to relinquish part of their stake if Arise goes ahead with its investment - and whether an offer will be extended to all shareholders to buy some of their stock. Still, it's clearly a vote of confidence in Sasfin.

Meanwhile, Sappi's shares rose despite the paper and pulp group putting a temporary halt on dividends due to tough market conditions, while Mediclinic was virtually unmoved after it reported a return to profitability in its interim results.

Also today, Pepkor is impairing its building materials division due to the contraction in the market over the past year, which has also resulted in Sephaku reporting a first-half loss. And Oceana Group says it has benefitted from its diversification over the past year.

To end the week, all the latest from DealMakers too.

For the past month we have been informing potential investors like yourself about the most promising new investment opportunities in high-growth small companies. Not only have Uprise.Africa built the first FSCA-licensed crowd-funding platform in South Africa, but investors can choose to invest their private funds in return for tradable stock certificates on the ZARX stock exchange.

This allows the investor to access private equity opportunities with complete liquidity and no lock up. Follow this link if you'd like to find out more.

I hope you have a good weekend.

Stephen Gunnion

Managing Editor, InceConnect

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