The Bytes share price chart is an incredible way to be slightly down year-to-date (JSE: BYI)

Talk about a rollercoaster ride!

If someone told you that they were down 2.8% year-to-date in a stock, you probably wouldn’t expect to see something quite like this:

Those who managed to get in at the bottom have done nicely, although there was a scary dead cat bounce just after the precipitous drop. Trading is fun, but hard.

Underneath all this, we have Bytes Technology as an example of a broken growth stock. It’s not really a broken company of course, but it’s certainly broken in terms of the growth expectations that the market used to have.

They are dealing with structural changes to their business that have led to words like “resilience” when describing the performance in the latest half-year trading update – not the kind of language that growth investors want to see.

The update notes that gross invoiced income for the six months is expected to be around £1.33 billion, which is ahead of £1.23 billion in the comparable period (not that the announcement bothers to give comparatives – you have to go digging). The problem is that despite this growth, gross profit is expected to be “not less than £82 million” (i.e. not less than what they managed last year) and operating profit is expected to be not less than £33 million. The prior year was £35.6 million, so there’s chance of a small dip in profits.

When a company needs to rebuild trust with the market, an announcement that just gives numbers without comparatives or a reminder of the guidance at the AGM isn’t good enough. Given the previous management scandal at Bytes and now the lack of growth under new management, they should be falling over themselves to make things easy for investors to understand, even when it’s a tough message to deliver.

Finbond swings into profits (JSE: FGL)

Yay for an early trading statement!

Finbond has released a trading statement for the period ended August 2025. Results are due to be released on 31 October, so they’ve done the right thing here and released a trading statement that gives investors plenty of advance warning.

It’s easier of course when you know that there’s a huge move in HEPS, but that’s exactly the point with a trading statement – the bigger the move, the earlier the trading statement should come out.

In this case, HEPS has increased by more than 100%, swinging from a loss of 2 cents per share to positive earnings of at least 0.5 cents per share.

Lighthouse adds the hypermarket at Espacio Mediterraneo to the deal (JSE: LTE)

Initially, it looked like the current, separate owner would be keeping it

Back in June this year, Lighthouse Properties announced the acquisition of Espacio Mediterraneo in Spain, adding to the portfolio in the Iberian Peninsula. The property has a large hypermarket in it (currently occupied by Carrefour) that was excluded from the deal due to its separate ownership.

Lighthouse has managed to persuade the owner to part with the hypermarket for €19.5 million, which is a net initial yield of 7% (excluding transaction costs). I can understand why owning the entire mall is much easier from a management perspective than having a separate owner of the hypermarket unit.

Despite the name, SA Corporate Real Estate holds various property types – even residential (JSE: SAC)

And the interim results tell a positive story

The property sector seems to be a pretty consistent source of growth at the moment. Most companies are growing their distribution at a rate above inflation, while some have achieved outstanding growth at much higher levels. The sector would’ve loved to see an interest rate cut this week, but alas it seems as though the SARB loves watching South Africans live life on hard mode.

In the meantime, the property sector (like all South Africans) must keep grinding away. SA Corporate Real Estate has a diverse property portfolio that managed like-for-like net property income growth of 4.9% in the six months to June 2025, along with a 7.5% increase in the distribution per share. This increase was partially due to the payout ratio being 92.5% vs. 90.0% in the comparable period, so just be aware of that – there’s only so far that a payout ratio can be pushed.

The loan-to-value ratio improved from 42.0% as at December 2024 to 40.3% by June, assisted by a significant asset disposal programme. Combined with a decrease in the weighted average cost of funding, this boosted earnings.

Perhaps the most unusual thing about SA Corporate Real Estate is the residential portfolio. Along with the types of properties that you’re used to seeing in listed funds, the company has what can only be described as buy-to-let at scale – and my head hurts just thinking about it, particularly as these are inner city properties in places like Joburg. While enjoying the rental income in the meantime, they are looking to sell over 3,000 units over the next three years. The sales thus far have been 60% above cost and 20% above book value, so they will hope for this trend to continue.

Here’s an interesting nugget from the results: “The redevelopment of Montana Crossing is now complete, with the introduction of Checkers Fresh X, Checkers Liquor and Petshop Science as anchor tenants replacing Pick n Pay. The Group anticipates a 30% uplift in the rental income of Montana Crossing for the 2026 financial year as a result.”

If you look at the property funds, you learn so much about retail. Whilst Pick n Pay (JSE: PIK) may shrink into a sustainable business, my view is that they will never regain the lost ground. Shoprite (JSE: SHP) is just sailing off into the sunset from a market share perspective.

Finishing off with SA Corporate Real Estate, the fund expects distributable income per share growth for the full year of between 4% and 5%. Thanks to the higher payout ratio, the distribution per share is expected to be between 7% and 8% higher.

Nibbles:

• Director dealings:
  • Des de Beer bought more shares in Lighthouse Properties (JSE: LTE), this time to the value of R5.4 million.
  • The chairman of Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW) bought shares worth R174k and an executive director bought shares worth R1.9 million.
  • The chairman of KAP (JSE: KAP) bought shares in the company worth R50k.

• Keen to learn more about Datatec (JSE: DTC)? The management team presented at the RMB Morgan Stanley Off Piste Conference this week and the company has made the presentation available here.

• Here’s something worth keeping an eye on: Tiger Brands (JSE: TBS) has repurchased around 3% of its shares since the AGM in February 2025. That’s an investment of R1.5 billion in the company’s own shares at an average price per share of R278.61 (current price is R315.77). They can repurchase up to a total of 10% of the shares that were in issue at the date of the AGM. The benefit of repurchasing shares is that it boosts HEPS, as the pie is effectively being cut into fewer pieces to feed the remaining shareholders, hence each shareholder gets a bigger slice!

• Remember Wikus Lategan from Calgro M3 (JSE: CGR)? Having resigned as CEO of Calgro M3 a while ago to pursue other opportunities, he’s now popped up as an independent non-executive director of Safari Investments (JSE: SAR). The announcement notes that Lategan is the co-founder of ION Holdings, a property investment firm. It will be interesting to see what he gets up to! Safari announced that corporate and commercial attorney Conrad Dormehl has also joined the board as an independent non-executive director, so the board has certainly been beefed up.

• Vunani Limited (JSE: VUN) has released a bland cautionary, which means a cautionary announcement that is low on details (flavour). All we know is that a wholly owned subsidiary has entered into negotiations of some kind. We have no idea whether this is for an acquisition or disposal.

• Shuka Minerals (JSE: SKA) has updated the market on a further delay to the funds due to be received from Gathoni Muchai Investments to facilitate the acquisition of Leopard Exploration and Mining Limited and the Kabwe Zinc Mine. It’s never good when weird things like payment delays start happening, particularly when they aren’t rectified timeously. The funder expects to resolve this problem by the end of September. Thankfully, the sellers of the assets remain supportive of the transaction.

• Assura (JSE: AHR) has confirmed that the delisting of its shares from the JSE is expected to take place on 3 October, followed by the delisting in London on 6 October. This is because of the successful offer by Primary Health Properties (JSE: PHP) that achieved sufficient acceptances to allow the company to follow a squeeze-out process to mop up the remaining shares.

• MTN Zakhele Futhi (JSE: MTNZF) released results for the six months to June 2025. They don’t really matter though, as the company is in the final stages of being wound up and the June NAV is now a very outdated number based on the distributions to shareholders. I’m purely mentioning it for completeness.

Note: Ghost Bites is my journal of each day’s news on SENS. It reflects my own opinions and analysis and should only be one part of your research process. Nothing you read here is financial advice. E&OE. Disclaimer.