Double-digit growth at Coronation (JSE: CML)

It’s been a much better year for the company

Coronation has released results for the year ended September. They reflect much stronger market conditions in South Africa, leading to assets under management (AUM) growing by 14%. This boosted revenue from fund management by 10% and fund management earnings per share by 12%.

Importantly, that measure of earnings excludes the SARS matter that distorted earnings in recent periods. In the prior period, a reversal of the tax amount led to an inflated earnings base, which is why group HEPS is down 25%. That is no reflection of performance though, so I wouldn’t focus on this number.

HEPS is good, but it’s not perfect when it comes to unusual items that impact earnings.

Finding growth at Old Mutual is no small task (JSE: OMU)

The latest voluntary update shows how tough it is

Old Mutual has been in the shadow of Sanlam (JSE: SLM) for as long as I can remember. Although recent share price performance has been similar for the two companies, the picture over 5 years tells a very different story:

Closing this gap is going to take a lot of work at Old Mutual. The voluntary update for the nine months to September shows that growth is hard to come by. For example, Life APE sales were up just 1%, while loans and advances fell by 1%. Gross written premiums were the highlight, up 5%.

Although gross flows were remarkably flat, net client flows were negative R6.7 billion (vs. negative R2 billion in the prior period). Old Mutual notes that there were large outflows in low-margin indexation products from a significant offshore investor. Hopefully, once that works its way through the system, net flows will be a prettier picture.

This is a game of inches for investors, with much hope being placed on Old Mutual’s bank ambitions.

Reinet’s NAV dipped over six months (JSE: RNI)

Almost a third of the NAV is sitting in cash

Reinet has released results for the six months to September. Much of the focus in the market is on the intended use of the cash on the balance sheet, especially as far more cash is coming if the deal to sell Pension Insurance Corporation goes through.

If you look at the breakdown of net asset value as at September, you’ll find that cash is 31.7% of the NAV. This is thanks to the previous sale of British American Tobacco (JSE: BTI). With Pension Insurance Corporation as just over 50% of the NAV, this would put them in a position where over 80% of NAV is sitting in cash if that asset is sold.

The group is still reinvesting the cash received in dividends from Pension Insurance Corporation, so that’s a sign of intent that they plan to keep going with investments rather than wind up the structure and return cash to shareholders. I don’t think the portfolio of private equity and alternative assets will cut it though, so Reinet will need to identify new anchor investments when the cash lands on the balance sheet.

I have no doubt that corporate finance advisors are constantly bugging management to figure out what the plan is for the cash!

Data is nearly 60% of revenue at Telkom (JSE: TKG)

The share price has enjoyed a strong year for the telco sector

The Telkom turnaround story has been quite something to behold. The group has been working hard to get out of non-core assets and focus on areas of growth, all while trying to overcome the treadmill of their legacy busy gently dying. Talk about life on hard mode!

They are doing a solid job though, with group revenue up 3.4% for the six months to September. That number might not sound exciting, but underneath it lies a business that continues to grow in the right places. As the mix improves at Telkom over time and the legacy businesses become less important, then the group growth rate should improve. That’s the theory, at least.

If we dig deeper, we find highlights like mobile data revenue growth of 10.3% and fibre-related data revenue growth of 12.3%. Telkom is really promoting the data story, noting that data revenue is up 7.9% and contributed 59.1% to group revenue.

They enjoyed a 7.4% increase in adjusted group EBITDA, while EBITDA margin expanded to 27.2%. Net debt to EBITDA was stable at 0.7x. “Stable” is a theme that also comes through in their free cash flow number.

As for HEPS, it grew 16.4% as the benefits of the solid performance filtered through the income statement.

Keep an eye on Telkom Mobile, where they grew their mobile subscriber base by 26.7%! Of all the growth rates in these numbers, that one really caught my eye.

Their outlook for the remainder of the year can best be described as one of cautious optimism.

Nibbles:

• Director dealings:
  • There’s been some more significant selling by Richemont (JSE: CFR) executive directors in response to the recent positive share price performance and the release of results that takes them out of a closed period. Being Swiss, Richemont doesn’t disclose the name of the directors, but there were two separate announcements and hence I assume two separate directors who sold shares for for over R62 million in aggregate.
  • A non-executive director of Anglo American (JSE: AGL) bought shares worth around R550k.
  • An associate of a director of OUTsurance (JSE: OUT) hedged exposure to the shares through various derivative transactions. This included buying call options with a strike price of R75.10. To help fund this purchase, there was a sale of call options with a strike of R87.30 and put options with a strike of R63.84. The specifics of these complex structures will vary each time, but the underlying principle is that large shareholders often look to hedge their stake so they can use it for other funding purposes.

• Here’s something interesting: RMB Holdings (JSE: RMH) released a cautionary announcement regarding a potential offer to be made by Atterbury to RMH shareholders. To make it spicier, the cautionary notes that the announcement is necessary as RMH suspects that confidentiality hasn’t been maintained around the potential offer. This comes after RMH recently impaired their assets and brought down the NAV. The value unlock was always expected to be RMH selling the stake in Atterbury, not Atterbury buying the shares in RMH! At the end of the day, if RMH shareholders get the value they are looking for, they won’t really care exactly how it happens. As I’ve said before, there are some big brains on both sides of this negotiating table.

• Ascendis (JSE: ASC) shareholders voted strongly in favour of the delisting transaction. The shares will be delisted on 4 December, bringing an end to a story that started in the JSE frothiness in the middle of the “lost decade” and ended with a pretty messy process to eventually get the thing delisted.

• After recently updating the market on the NAV per share in light of the Optasia (JSE: OPA) IPO, Ethos Capital Partners (JSE: EPE) released another update that gives details on the state of the balance sheet as at September 2025. But the Optasia numbers are actually more recent, so shareholders would be better off looking at that. The reporting calendar vs. the IPO timing just means that the numbers are coming out in a funny order. As at 17 November, Ethos Capital’s NAV per share was R9.41. This is 9.8% higher than the June 2025 number thanks to the valuation uplift at Optasia.

• Eastern Platinum (JSE: EPS) has secured a loan of C$1 million to ramp up the underground production at the Crocodile River Mine. The lender is Ka An Development Co, a related party. The interest rate is 10.5%.

• Curro (JSE: COH) announced that the only remaining condition to the offer by the Jannie Mouton Stigting is the approval by the South African Competition Commission. Engagement with the regulators has led to an extension of 10 days for them to provide feedback. I’m really hoping there won’t be some crazy conditions coming through here, as our competition regulator has been known to dream up some highly uncommercial “public interest” conditions. It’s hard to imagine anything being more in the public interest than this deal going ahead!

• There are some significant changes to the board at Standard Bank (JSE: SBK) due to director rotation rules that deem directors to no longer be independent once they have served for a period of 9 years. This means several changes to board committees, including Lwazi Bam being appointed as Lead Independent Director.

• Capitec (JSE: CPI) noted that S&P has upgraded the bank’s credit rating and affirmed the positive outlook. This is a direct result of the similar upgrade and positive outlook for the sovereign rating, as the ratings of the banks are strongly tied to the ratings of South Africa’s sovereign debt. The lesson from this? A better credit rating for South Africa means a cheaper cost of funding for the local banks, which in turn means they can play a better role in stimulating the economy.

• Pepkor (JSE: PPH) announced that Moody’s has affirmed its credit rating with a stable outlook. This is good news for Pepkor as the company has a domestic medium-term note programme and makes use of debt to grow the business.