Africa Bitcoin Corporation bought one bitcoin (JSE: BAN)
Which takes their tally to two bitcoin…
I try hard to have an open mind – not just when it comes to finance, but in life in general. I’m not a traditional crypto guy and I never will be, but I’ve heard decent arguments from very smart people in favour of adding bitcoin exposure over time. Each to their own.
From a corporate strategy perspective though, I still don’t understand the decision to pivot from Altvest to Africa Bitcoin Corporation. I raised my doubts at the time about the local market acceptance. The subsequent capital raise unfortunately proved me right, as they only raised a few million bucks towards this big dream. In public market terms, that’s tiny. To give you context, you would need to raise more money to open a Spur than they managed to raise in the public market to buy bitcoin.
Using part of the proceeds from the capital raise of R4.05 million, they’ve deployed R1.87 million to buy one bitcoin. This means they now own 2.0116 bitcoin at a total in-price of R3.69 million. I’m never going to be convinced that this is a better use of management time and effort than just focusing on delivering on the promises of the Altvest Credit Opportunities Fund (ACOF).
I’m not sure why the remaining R2.2 million or so from the capital raise wasn’t deployed. They talk about retaining cash on hand for further bitcoin deployment, so does that mean they don’t like the current pricing? And if so, why did they buy the first one? Are they actively looking to trade bitcoin, or are they looking to build a reserve over time, in which case they should’ve deployed as much as possible into bitcoin? There are more questions than answers here.
The company has also now started reporting BTC Yield, which measures the change in the number of bitcoin per share in issue over a period of time. This metric is used by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the global bitcoin treasury company that everyone points to as the best example of this approach. I personally find the word “yield” to be misleading though. Just call it what it is: the change in the NAV per share that is related to bitcoin.
Alphamin released detailed Q3 financials that reflect a much better quarter (JSE: APH)
You just have to be careful of the disruption in the prior quarter
Alphamin releases detailed operational updates long before they actually file their financials for the quarter, so the main details of the recent performance were already known to the market a month ago. Still, it’s worth recapping the highlights now that detailed financials are available for the quarter ended September.
Contained tin production in Q3 was up 26% vs. Q2 (i.e. sequentially, not year-on-year) and this led to an increase in guidance for full-year production. EBITDA jumped by a juicy 28% vs. Q2 thanks to not just a 12% increase in tin sales, but also a 4% improvement in the average tin price achieved and a 2% decrease in the cost per tonne.
Alphamin’s operations were impacted by a production halt in the second quarter, so don’t extrapolate these sequential growth rates into the future. Security risks in the DRC remain top of mind for the company and its investors, with the share price having had a wildly volatile year:
If you have a fetish for trading DRC security risks, then you’ll want to add this one to your watchlist. For those with low risk tolerance, it’s probably better to look elsewhere. Mining in Africa is very far along the risk/reward curve and certainly isn’t for everyone.
ArcelorMittal is fighting the unions (JSE: ACL)
Everything that makes South Africa a tough place to do business is on full display here
ArcelorMittal’s problems have been highlighted for a long time now. The company has carried losses at the Longs business for ages, with government getting involved to try and find some kind of solution. No such solution has been found, which means that the company has little choice but to put the Longs business into care and maintenance. This is a disaster for places like Newcastle, but ArcelorMittal is out of options as they are a for-profit company that cannot carry huge losses forever.
Of course, being the highly unionised country that we are, NUMSA challenged the Section 189 process concluded in March 2025 and the Labour Court found in their favour. This means that ArcelorMittal has to reinstate all the employees who were dismissed, and they can’t undertake further dismissals, despite going through a detailed process to try and find an economic solution for these assets that wasn’t forthcoming from either the private or public sector.
I feel very sorry for the workers involved here, but this business is going to fail for reasons that are mostly outside of its control. That’s how things work in a country with low growth and deteriorating infrastructure. If that makes you angry, direct that anger at government where it belongs.
enX really misses load shedding (JSE: ENX)
An entire industry was left for dead by Eskom’s sudden improvement
Much like memories of COVID lockdowns, load shedding is starting to feel like an out-of-body experience; a thing that happened to somebody else. It’s hard to think back to what life was like when we didn’t have electricity for half the day. Things truly were darkest before the dawn!
It wouldn’t be accurate to say that nobody misses load shedding, as there were a lot of businesses built to address the desperate needs of South Africans for backup power. Although an element of that demand remains, it’s certainly nowhere near what it used to be. This is the problem when a business is built to address a single problem. In this case, the “disruption” to the industry was something as simple as Eskom keeping the lights on!
This is why enX’s continuing operations, primarily the Power segment, are suffering. In a trading statement for the year ended August 2025, the company noted a drop in revenue from continuing operations of 32%. Profit before tax will be down by between 30% and 34%. To add insult to injury, the lack of load shedding was accompanied by a delay in large-scale data centre projects and the payment of R15 million related to the IDC calling on a guarantee. On a per-share basis, HEPS from continuing operations will be between -3 cents and +1 cent, which is at least much better than the restated prior period loss of -8 cents.
In the discontinued operations, we find the disposal of the Lubricants segment that was effective in March 2025. We also find the Chemicals segment that is the subject of a transaction with Trichem. Just for added complexity, the prior period also includes the Fleet business that was disposed of to Nedbank.
Looking through all the noise here, the summary for me is that what’s left of enX is in a really difficult spot. They’ve disposed of the better businesses that were capable of finding buyers. The remaining stuff is going to be a bigger challenge.
Kore Potash could end up going private before the Kola Project is even built (JSE: KP2)
Unsurprisingly, buyers are circling the asset
Junior mining is all about getting through the big initial milestones and creating value through that process. It’s similar in nature to venture capital, with cash burn along the way in the early days in the hope of huge profits down the line. The ongoing need for capital is why many such companies choose to list and build in public, particularly on exchanges that are supportive of the mining sector (like the JSE).
But when the risk/reward profile shifts as milestones are achieved, these companies become more attractive takeover targets. Sure enough, Kore Potash has attracted the attention of investors who might be looking to do more than just put some money in towards the Kola Project’s development.
The company has engaged advisors to cast the net wide enough to see if an attractive deal can be found. If such a deal materialises, it’s likely that it would be for all the shares in the company and that a delisting would be on the table. There are two parties who have submitted non-binding expressions of interest in this regard.
There’s no guarantee whatsoever that anything will happen here. I must note that the company requires funding this month, so they are playing a risky game here in the pursuit of the best possible deal for shareholders and the company. The company has released a cautionary announcement to remind shareholders to be careful at the moment.
The current share price is more than 6x higher than the lows in May 2024. When junior mining goes well, it can go very well.
Pepkor has finalised the R1.7 billion Legit / Swagga / Style / Boardmans acquisition (JSE: PPH)
The group is looking to increase its market share in adultwear categories
Pepkor is doing very well at the moment, as evidenced by the recent results. This is because they have been focused on execution in South Africa for lower-income consumers who have come to rely on Pepkor’s offering and its associated credit business. Doing a few things really well is always a better idea than doing many things badly.
One of Pepkor’s traditional strengths lies in kidswear. They are looking to take the learnings and apply them to more adult-focused businesses, as this is obviously a huge opportunity. They have talked before about being underindexed in adultwear, a fancy way for a retailer to describe a situation in which they have lower relative market share in that category vs. other categories.
As part of this strategy, Pepkor announced in March this year that they had agreed to acquire Legit, Swagga, Style and Boardmans from Retailability, the company that had acquired Edgars out of business rescue. The update is that the final purchase price is R1.7 billion (roughly 1.7% of Pepkor’s market cap) and that the conditions for the deal have been met. The implementation date was 2 November 2025.
Boardmans is the odd one out here, being an online-only business in the homeware segment. That will slot into the Pepkor Lifestyle business. As for the rest, they will land in Pepkor Speciality to try and maximise the potential synergies. Pepkor will undoubtedly apply their “credit interoperability strategy” to these stores as well, with 469 stores being added to the existing footprint of 979 stores in Pepkor Speciality.
Nibbles:
- Director dealings:
- An associate of a director of South Ocean Holdings (JSE: SOH) bought shares worth R38k.
- The CEO of Vunani (JSE: VUN) bought shares worth R9.6k.
- Here’s an interesting one: the CFO of Attacq (JSE: ATT), Raj Nana, has resigned from the role with effect from the end of January 2026. He’s been with Attacq for around 12 years! There are no details in the announcement on where he is going or who his successor will be.
- MTN Zakhele Futhi (JSE: MTNZF) announced that the special dividend of R4.20 per share has received SARB approval and will be paid on 17 November. This is part of the final winding up of the scheme after it realised its investment in MTN.
- Visual International (JSE: VIS) raised just R1.7 million through its bookbuild process. Such is life in penny stock land, unfortunately. It would probably also help tremendously if they had a working website, but what do I know?
