Friday was a relatively quiet day for JSE news, which allowed many investors to catch up on the vast array of earnings announcements that came out earlier in the week.
The same wasn't true for trading activity, which saw a spectacular sell-off in Naspers and Prosus (down 10.9% and 9.5% respectively). Gold miners shone brightly, led by Gold Fields (as usual) with a 7.5% climb. Other miners also had a fantastic day, with Thungela up 5.3% and Kumba up 4.9%.
To give an idea of the substantial rally in mining and resources stocks in the past 3 months, the Resi 10 index is up over 25%. That doesn't include dividends, which have been significant at this point in the cycle. The market is dishing out many lessons at the moment about market cycles.
In the flurry of announ cements last week, I made a mistake on Friday morning. I referred to African Rainbow Capital instead of African Rainbow Minerals. If you read the full paragraph, it should've been obvious that there was an error, as I discussed the underlying ferrous, platinum and coal exposures (African Rainbow Capital doesn't hold such assets). We sent out an erratum mailer later on Friday morning and I'm going to repeat the correct news here: African Rainbow MINERALS has declared an interim dividend of R12 per share, which is 20% higher than the comparable period.
Moving on to fresh news, Orion Minerals has reached an agreement to extend the deadline for the acquisition of the remaining vendor interests in the Jacomynspan Nickel-Copper-PGE Project. This is located 65km of the Prieska Copper-Zinc Project that Orion is best known for. The date for completion has been extended from 27 February 2022 to 30 April 2022. This is to enable the discussion of a potenti ally expanded and revised transaction that could include additional nickel projects.
Orion also released results for the six months to December 2021. A profit of AUD0.1 million in the prior period has swung into a loss of AUD10.5 million in this period, half of which is attributable to foreign exchange movements and the other half to exploration expenditure. Orion has $9.99 million in cash and is in the process of developing the Prieska and Okiep projects. Although there is minimal liquidity in Orion, the share price is up over 10% in the past 90 days.
In unfortunate news, Jonathan Weltman has resigned as CFO of Balwin due to health reasons. He has been with the company for a decade and served as an executive director since 2014. In a move that will make it easy to remember the CFO's name, another Jonathan has taken his place. Group Finance Manager Jonathan Bigham will step into the CFO role.
Sticking with property news, Hammerson released results for the year ended December 2021. This was an important year for the company, with GBP623 million in disposals as the portfolio was shifted in response to the pandemic. The pro forma loan to value ratio has decreased to 37%.
Things do seem to be improving, with the company highlighting strong leasing demand, reduced vacancies, improved collections and a lower cost base. Hammerson also sees the opportunity to create value from property developments. Moody's has changed its outlook on the company from negative to stable.
Including GBP470 million in negative property fair value adjustments, the group recorded a loss of GBP429 million for the year. The revaluations were heavily weighted towards the first six months (GBP361 million vs. GBP109 million in the second half). The cash dividend is 0.2 pence per share, with a scrip dividend alternative of 2.0 pence per share. The group is enc ouraging shareholders to accept shares in lieu of a cash dividend, as this strengthens the balance sheet.
Have a productive Monday!
The Finance Ghost
