“Africa’s consumer markets are expanding, but operating across them remains complex.
Fragmented retail channels, diverse regulatory environments and long logistics networks mean that for many brand owners, success depends as much on execution as it does on demand.”
Duncan Lewis – Chief Executive Officer
Market conditions have increased the importance of specialised route-to-market platforms – companies that provide the infrastructure needed to connect brands with retailers across multiple markets.
One such company is CA&S Group.
Financial highlights:
Operating Profit: R860.88 million (up 10.0%)
Headline Earnings per Share: 143.72 cents (up 17.1%)
Headline Earnings: R690.25 million (up 17.9%)
Revenue: R12.81 billion (up 2.3%)
Dividend: 28.69 cents per share (up 17.4%)
For the year ended 31 December 2025, CA&S reported increased operating profit and headline earnings and raised its dividend by 17.4%, reflecting strong cash generation despite subdued consumer spend in parts of its operating footprint.
Revenue increased to R12.81 billion, compared with R12.52 billion in the prior year.
The board declared a dividend of 28.69 cents per share, up 17.4% from 24.44 cents declared in 2024.
These results were achieved against softened trading conditions in Botswana as developments in the global diamond market, a key driver of the country’s economy, contributed to currency deflation, affecting consumer spending and prompting a shift towards more affordable products. Despite these conditions, CA&S grew EBITDA in Botswana by 13.1%.
Against this backdrop, CA&S continued to expand its client portfolio across Southern and East Africa.
The group operates a portfolio of FMCG service businesses that connect global and regional brand owners with retail channels through sales execution, distribution, logistics and merchandising capabilities.
Chief executive Duncan Lewis said the results highlight the resilience of the group’s operating model.
“Our strategy is centred on building a scalable route-to-market platform capable of supporting brand owners across multiple African markets,” Lewis said.
Expansion in East Africa
A key strategic development during the year was the group’s investment in East Africa.
In February 2025 CA&S acquired a 35% stake in Trapin Holdings Ltd, the Tradco Group, for R108.4 million.
Tradco is a Kenya-based trade marketing and distribution business with operations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The transaction strengthens CA&S’s presence in East Africa and supports its broader regional expansion strategy.
Ongoing investment across the group
CA&S also continued investing in operational infrastructure. During the year the group approved capital expenditure of R300 million for the development of land and buildings in Eswatini.
Following the year end, the group acquired a majority stake in Sunpac (Pty) Ltd, a South African distributor specialising in category management and route-to-market services in the personal care sector.
The acquisition introduces capability in the private and confined label category, an area of increasing importance for retailers.
As African consumer markets continue to evolve, companies capable of providing integrated route-to-market infrastructure are likely to play an increasingly central role in the sector’s growth.
CA&S is an Africa-focused group of route-to-market specialists, with a dual listing on the BSE and the JSE. The group holds a portfolio of dynamic fast-moving consumer goods service businesses that partner with global and local brand owners to get their products to consumers – ensuring their brands reach the right stores and shoppers across Southern and East Africa.
Note: CA&S values the Ghost Mail audience and the company has placed its earnings here accordingly. This article reflects the views of the company. For the views of The Finance Ghost, refer to the section in Ghost Bites dealing with these results.
Logicalis Germany, a wholly owned subsidiary of Datatec, has acquired 100% of the share capital of NetworkedAssets, a specialist in software development, network automation and observability solutions. The company has operations in Berlin and in Wroclaw, Poland. The deal better positions the group to support customers in automating and operating increasingly complex IT environments. The acquisition became effective on 24 March 2026, financial details of which were undisclosed.
Trematon Capital Investments’ subsidiary Tremgrowth has entered into an agreement to dispose of Club Mykonos Langebaan for R70 million, subject to adjustments. The acquirer Variflex Trading 138 is a related party, representing a management consortium led by the current Trematon CEO. The net proceeds of the disposal will be available for distribution to shareholders.
Discovery via its subsidiary Vitality Group International has agreed to dispose of half of its 8.7% stake in CMT for US$49,5 million (R831 million) to TPG Global. Discovery originally invested $5 million in 2014 to acquire a 21.67% interest and over the period net dilutions and disposal gains have earned Discovery $75 million in aggregate.
Labat Africa is to acquire the remaining 49% shareholding in Ahnamu Investments, an ICT solutions provider, from H Khan for a purchase consideration of R40 million. The purchase consideration will be settled through the issue of 400 million Labat ordinary shares at an issue price of R0.10 per share. The deal is a category 2 transaction and as such does not require shareholder approval.
The posting date of the circular to shareholders by Zeder Investments following the disposal of Zaad Holdings by its subsidiary Zeder Financial Services has been revised and is expected to be available to shareholders on 31 March 2026.
Unlisted Companies
littlefish, the Johannesburg-based fintech infrastructure company, has raised US$9,5 million Series A round led by French development finance institution Proparco. The round included participation from TLCOM Capital and Flourish Ventures. The new capital will be used to grow the team, accelerating product development and scale its go-to-market operations.
Cape-based startup Happy Pay has raised US$5 million in a seed round led by global technology investor Partech. The round saw participation from Futuregrowth Asset Management, 4Di Capital, E4E Africa, Equitable Ventures, Summit Deals, the University Technology Fund and Felix Strategic Investments. Happy Pay, a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platform, will use the fresh capital to scale the first ad-subsidised payments network to deliver cost-free BNPL payments for local consumers. The funds will also be used to expand merchant partnerships and grow distribution across digital and physical channels.
FirstRand has increased its stake in Optasia to 26.1% following a deal with Zoey Enterprises, an associate of and entity owned by Bassim Haidar, the founder of Optasia. The 74,103,711 shares, representing a 6% stake, were acquired at a price per share of R20.00 for an aggregate R1,48 billion.
PK Investments, which listed on the Cape Town Stock Exchange in August 2025 and which made headlines in local M&A circles during that year with several attemps to take control of MAS plc, has indicated that it intends to acquire further shares. PKI currently hold a c.37% stake – a stake it would like to increase by bidding for up to a further 40 million MAS shares (5.5% stake). PKI has provided R19.75 as a guidance on price to shareholders. The bid will close on Friday 27 March at 13h00.
AttBid, a vehicle representing Atterbury Property Fund (APF), I Faan and I Dirk, which made an offer to RMH shareholders earlier this month, acquired a further 12,9 million shares in on-market transactions this week. Following this, AttBid and APF hold 32.77% and 9.42% respectively, resulting in an aggregate of c.42.19% of the RMH shares in issue.
Jubilee Metals has advised that it proposes to reduce its share premium account in order to restructure the company’s balance sheet to increase the amount of available distributable reserves. The capital reduction is conditional upon shareholder approval.
Africa Bitcoin will undertake a restructure of its authorised and issued ordinary share capital by way of a sub-division of its ordinary share capital on a 3 for 1 basis. This will enhance the liquidity and marketability of the stock and broaden its exchange footprint with a potential migration to the JSE Main Board and participation on additional international trading platforms. In addition, the sub-division is expected to enhance the company’s flexibility in respect of future capital raising initiatives, strategic transactions and potential equity-based initiatives.
Anglo American has received approval from the SIX Swiss Exchange to delist its 1,178,050,272 ordinary shares. The move is part of Anglo’s review of its global share listings in connection with the proposed merger with Teck Resources. The last day of trading on the exchange is expected to be 25 June 2026.
This week the following companies announced the repurchase of shares:
Investec Ltd announced in November 2025 that it would commence the repurchase and cancel of some of the non-redeemable, non-cumulative, non-participating preference shares. This week the company repurchased a further 474,493 preference shares at an average price per share of R99.72 for an aggregate R47,32 million.
Premier’s repurchase programme which was undertaken to optimise the Group’s capital structure ahead of the implementation of the RFG transaction resulted in the repurchase of 1,811,992 shares during March. The shares represented c. 1.4% of the issued share capital with an aggregate value of R323 million. The shares will be delisted.
During the period September 2025 to March 2026, PBT Holdings repurchased 3,413,934 shares at an average price per share of R6.69 for an aggregate R22,85 million. The shares, which will be cancelled, represent 3.24% of the shares in issue.
In 2025, Ninety One plc announced that it would undertake a repurchase programme of up to £30 million. The shares will be purchased on the open market and cancelled to reduce the Company’s ordinary share capital. This week the company repurchased a further 128,703 ordinary shares at an average price 218 pence for an aggregate £280,510.
GreenCoat Renewables has implemented a share buyback programme totalling €100 million over 12 months with a first tranche amounting to €25 million beginning on 5 March 2026 – representing 13% of the issued share capital. This week 2,229,897 shares were repurchased for and aggregate €1,75 million.
In 2025 Investec ltd commenced its share purchase and buy-back programme of up to R2,5 billion (£100 million). This week, Investec ltd purchased 20,300 Investec plc shares on the JSE at an average price of R132.79 per share. Over the same period Investec ltd repurchased 20,400 of its shares at an average price per share of R131.60. The Investec ltd shares will be cancelled, and the Investec plc shares will be treated as if they were treasury shares in the consolidated annual financial statements of the Investec Group.
Quilter has announced it will commence a share buyback programme to repurchase shares with a value of up to £100 million in order to reduce the share capital of the company and return capital to shareholders. This week Quilter repurchased 1,940,040 shares on the LSE with an aggregate value of c.£3,4 million and 498,841 shares on the JSE with an aggregate value of R19,48 million.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s US$2 billion share buy-back programme continues. The shares acquired will be kept as treasury shares to fulfil future share delivery commitments under the group’s stock ownership plans. During the period 16 to 20 March 2026, the group repurchased 1,315,398 shares for €81,57 million.
In December 2025, British American Tobacco extended its share buyback programme by a further £1.3 billion for 2026. The shares will be cancelled. This week the company repurchased a further 562,855 shares at an average price of £43.21 per share for an aggregate £24,33 million.
During the period 16 to 20 March 2026, Prosus repurchased a further 2,919,471 Prosus shares for an aggregate €127,1 million and Naspers, a further 1,353,028 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R1,25 billion.
Seven companies issued a profit warning this week: York Timber, Hulamin, The Foschini Group, Gemfields, Insimbi Industrial, Rex Trueform, African and Overseas Enterprises.
Moniepoint has acquired end-to-end business management platform for restaurants and food businesses, Orda Africa for an undisclosed sum. Orda will become part of the Moniebook platform, delivering a complete solution tailored to the food service industry.
French development finance institution, Proparco, and RMBV, an independent investment firm focused on North Africa, announced their joint investment in Moroccan integrated agro-industrial group, Africa Feed & Food (AFF) through a MAD850 million capital increase. The funds raised will be used to accelerate AFF’s development around three priorities: increasing its industrial capacity in Morocco, strengthening vertical integration, and expanding its operations geographically in West Africa, particularly in Senegal and Mauritania.
BFA Asset Management’s Kimbo Fund, has committed US$1,2 million to Anda, an Angolan mobility company. These funds will support Anda’s multi-asset growth, spanning motorcycles, tuk-tuks, and cars, as well as continued investment in cutting-edge technology as they leverage artificial intelligence to better serve their customers at scale.
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) has committed €4,3 million to scale Afreenergy Solar,a specialised platform developing clean energy solutions for commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in Senegal, with the ambition to expand over time into selected markets in West and Central Africa. The project will see Afreenergy Solar scale its operations to deliver up to 30MW of solar energy and up to 10MWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS). Delivered in two phases, the company will engage clients across a number of sectors – including agro-industry, logistics and other energy-intensive industrial segments – aggregating multiple sites to reduce per-site costs.
Adenia Entrepreneurial Fund I, which just closed at its hard cap of US$180 million, has announced its first investment, acquiring a stake in Maymana for an undisclosed sum. Maymana is female-founded, female-led and family-run. The Moroccan company’s offering includes traditional Moroccan pastries, bakery and viennoiserie products, fine grocery items, and gourmet catering services.
The International Finance Corporation has announced a US$45 million corporate financing package investment consisting of an A‑Loan of $27 million and $18 million in blended finance from the Canada‑IFC Blended Climate Finance Program and the IDA20 Private Sector Window Blended Finance Facility, in IPT PowerTech, a Telecom Energy Service Company (T‑ESCO), to expand clean and reliable power for telecom networks in Ethiopia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Starsight Energy Africa Group, a provider of clean energy solutions for commercial and industrial (C&I) customers across sub-Saharan Africa, has secured US$15 million mezzanine debt funding from British International Investment (BII). The funding will drive growth in Starsight’s existing West African operations, with Nigeria earmarked to receive the majority of the funding.
Strides Pharma Science announced that its step‑down subsidiary, Strides Pharma International AG (SPIAG), has entered into a definitive agreement with Sandoz AG for the acquisition and in‑licensing of a portfolio of branded generic products across sub‑Saharan Africa (SSA). The agreement spans four key markets—Western Sahara (covering 10 countries), Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya. The branded generics portfolio of Sandoz, as a part of this deal, includes multiple brands across anti‑infective, cardiovascular, and dermatology therapeutic segments. The initial consideration for the transaction is US$12 million.
Draft guidelines on minority shareholder protections amounting to a change of control
In December 2025, the Competition Commission (Commission) published Draft Guidelines on minority shareholder protections in merger transactions (Guidelines). While not legally binding, these Guidelines signal how the Commission will likely approach these matters.
According to the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (the Competition Act), transactions resulting in a change of control must be notified if certain thresholds are met. In South Africa, the definition of control in the context of a merger is broad. Section 12(2)(g) of the Competition Act includes a “catch-all” provision whereby a firm controls another firm if it can “materially influence” that firm’s policy in a manner comparable to a person who, in ordinary commercial practice, can exercise an element of control.
The Guidelines aim to clarify when minority shareholder protections may give rise to material influence over a firm. They confirm an established principle that, in the context of notifiable transactions, even a minority shareholding could result in a change of control, triggering merger application obligations if the rights attached to the investment allow the minority investor to materially influence the business.
Minority shareholder protections typically safeguard the rights and interests of shareholders (i.e. their investment) owning less than 50% of a company. However, some protections can cross over to provide rights that enable the minority shareholder to exercise a form of control, and go beyond merely protecting the minority shareholder’s investment. When this occurs, the rights must be carefully assessed to determine whether merger notification is required.
Control and non-control conferring minority protections
The Guidelines confirm that control is a factual and contextual assessment that must be undertaken by the Commission on a case-by-case basis. The legal test is whether the minority investor has the ability to materially influence the policy of the firm in a manner comparable to that of a controlling shareholder. This approach is firmly grounded in South African competition law and aligns with international practice, particularly European merger control practice.
As alluded to earlier, there are ordinary minority investment protection rights that do not confer control, and the Guidelines recognise that not all veto rights confer control. The Guidelines identify protections – many of which are contained in the Companies Act (71 of 2008) – that typically do not trigger control, including rights to approve changes to dividend policy, appointment or removal of auditors, liquidation or winding-up, changes to accounting policies, entry into transactions outside the ordinary course of business, and amendments to constitutional documents. These are seen as standard protections for a minority investor’s financial interests.
Rights likely to cross the control threshold include vetoes over the company’s strategy, business plan or budget, appointment or removal of the CEO or CFO, dismissal of executives, new business activities outside the scope of the firm’s ordinary business activities, and significant deviations from approved budgets.
The instances listed by the Commission largely reflect established case law. However, many situations remain unclear. The Guidelines represent a missed opportunity, as they consolidate existing law rather than provide fresh guidance on more complex minority shareholder arrangements.
One notable addition is that control may arise from “the right to approve and/or veto or decline the undertaking of any new business activity outside the scope of the ordinary business activities of the firm”. This right could be seen as simply protecting a minority shareholder’s original investment. Whether it truly confers control remains debatable, and the Guidelines would have benefited from further examples addressing such borderline cases.
Whilst the Guidelines may represent a missed opportunity, leaving legal practitioners wanting in some respects, they helpfully reference the European Commission’s Consolidated Jurisdictional Notice, which can be read as an endorsement of the European approach for scenarios not yet fully addressed in South African law. For example, guidance can be drawn from the European Commission’s contextualisation of control rights with reference to market-specific factors. In this regard, the European Commission expressly references decisions concerning the technology to be used by a company – where technology is a key feature of the company’s activities – as being an important contextual factor when considering whether a right confers minority shareholder control. Similarly, in markets characterised by product differentiation and a significant degree of innovation, veto rights over new product lines may also be an important element in establishing minority control.
For business leaders, the Guidelines serve as a reminder that deals should not always be considered ‘low risk’, as private equity investments, joint ventures, growth capital funding and strategic minority stakes can confer control and trigger merger approval requirements. Standard shareholder agreements should be reviewed regularly, as ‘boilerplate’ clauses may inadvertently create notifiable mergers. It is important that these considerations are factored into deal timing, since notifiable transactions cannot proceed without competition authority approval.
Daryl Dingley is a Partner, Kgomotso Mmutle a Senior Associate and Gina Lodolo and Terrence Lane Associates | Webber Wentzel
This article first appeared in DealMakers, SA’s quarterly M&A publication.
As the curtain closed on 2025 and we headed into 2026, the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) M&A landscape appears to be gearing up for a level of momentum not seen in several cycles.
For years, dealmakers in the region have navigated a thicket of macroeconomic headwinds, including currency volatility, high interest rates and benign economic growth, due to structural challenges such as electricity and water shortages, as well as rail and logistics failings. Encouragingly, the outlook for 2026 indicates a fundamental shift may be underway.
Underpinned by improving macro factors and the resilient performance of equity markets across key hubs such as Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos, 2026 is shaping up to be the year that cautious optimism finally translates into positive execution.
AN ERA OF INTRA-AFRICAN SCALE
One of the more important structural shifts is the maturing of regional integration efforts. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is no longer just a diplomatic talking point; it is increasingly an impetus to dealmaking, as we face a world of uncertainty related to tariffs.
Historically, SSA has been criticised for its fragmented markets, resulting in frictional costs which often limited the scalability of investments. In 2026, however, we expect to see much improved volumes of cross-border M&A as both multinationals and regional champions look to augment their pan-African strategies. Businesses are looking beyond their domestic borders to unlock new consumer markets and achieve operational efficiencies in Africa that were previously impossible. This trend is particularly evident in the financial services, TMT, consumer goods and logistics sectors, where regional connectivity is the new benchmark for valuation.
GLOBAL APPETITES: GROWTH MEETS DIVERSIFICATION
While intra-African activity provides the engine, global capital continues to provide the fuel. The 2026 narrative for international investors is dual-focused. For developed market players (North America and Europe), the primary driver is growth. With traditional markets facing stagnation, SSA’s demographic dividend – a youthful, urbanising and increasing population – offers an attractive long-term growth profile that is hard to ignore.
Conversely, for emerging market investors, particularly from Asia and the Middle East, the focus is on strategic diversification and supply chain security. We are seeing more “South-South” tie-ups, where capital from the Gulf or India is being deployed into African healthcare, consumer goods companies, infrastructure and resources, treating the region as a vital node in the global trade architecture.
THE SECTORAL SPLIT: FROM DIGITAL DISRUPTION TO ENERGY TRANSITION
The deal flow of 2026 is likely to be dominated by two distinct “speeds” of investment:
1.The digital evolution: The fintech and technology sectors remain the darlings of the M&A world. However, the nature of these deals is evolving. We are moving away from speculative seed-stage investments toward mature consolidation. Established financial institutions are increasingly looking to acquire agile start-ups in digital payments and micro-lending. This is not just a grab for market share; it is a defensive and offensive move to ensure survival in a mobile-first economy.
2.The resource realignment: In the natural resources space, a “great restructuring” is underway. Global demand for critical minerals, including copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt, is driving aggressive M&A in the resources sector. The consolidation race amongst the large, multinational, diversified players looking to capture these scarce opportunities is on. Simultaneously, the energy transition is creating a bifurcated market in oil and gas: international majors are divesting mature onshore assets, creating space for ambitious “African independents”, while simultaneously pivoting their own African portfolios toward large-scale renewable energy and green hydrogen projects.
THE RISE OF THE INSTITUTIONAL “NEW GUARD”
The 2026 M&A ecosystem is also being professionalised by the growing influence of private capital. Private equity firms, family offices, and increasingly active sovereign wealth funds are increasingly stepping in where other forms of traditional financing may be sitting on the sidelines.
These institutional investors are bringing a long-term value creation mindset. They are attracted by assets that, due to recent currency adjustments, are currently undervalued relative to their intrinsic potential. Furthermore, 2026 is expected to be a bumper year for “secondary” sales—where one private equity firm sells to another—as funds look to return capital to limited partners following a period of holding-pattern stagnation. Their presence is mandating a higher standard of due diligence and governance, which in turn makes the entire market more attractive to risk-averse global players.
ESG CONSIDERATIONS FORM PART OF BUSINESS AS USUAL
If the last few years were about talking about ESG, 2026 will be about pricing it. The hype around environmental, social and governance considerations has transitioned to being seen as a critical part of transaction evaluations, and is increasingly embedded in sourcing capital. Acquiring entities in 2026 will prioritise targets that can prove a net-positive impact, whether that’s through clean energy adoption, inclusive healthcare models, or sustainable agri-business practices.
NAVIGATING THE REGULATORY FRONTIER: A HEIGHTENED ENFORCEMENT ERA
As we move into 2026, the regulatory landscape has become significantly more robust. Several critical developments in key SSA markets mean a heightened focus on anti-trust issues in M&A, as well as specific public interest factors that authorities must consider. This year, a deal’s success won’t just depend on its competitive impact, but on its contribution to environmental sustainability and its effect on small local businesses.
Furthermore, several governments across SSA are refining their local content requirements. In certain sectors, we are seeing a move away from generic ownership quotas towards more sophisticated value-retention models.
This requires acquirers to demonstrate, as part of their post deal plans, how they will integrate local suppliers and transfer technical expertise. Successful market participants in 2026 will be those who view regulatory diplomacy not as an administrative hurdle, but as a core component of their strategic value proposition.
CONCLUSION
As the year unfolds, the combination of the above factors suggests that SSA is not just open for business, but is ready for a period of significant corporate activity.
The 2026 M&A opportunity set in SSA represents one of the most compelling in the global landscape.
Krishna Nagar is head of Corporate Finance | RMB
This article first appeared in DealMakers AFRICA, the continent’s quarterly M&A publication.
Choppies is investing heavily into a weak market (JSE: CHP)
The immediate outcome of that strategy is predictably ugly
Choppies is on the wrong side of a macroeconomic downturn in Botswana. The diamond market collapse is hurting that economy, which means that the store expansion by Choppies is being executed in a weak market where stores take longer to mature.
And of course, when consumer demand is under pressure, gross profit margin is almost guaranteed to go the wrong way. This is thanks to the need to run more specials to attract customers (or “be more promotional” as the retailers call it).
For the six months to December 2025, Choppies reported an 8.6% increase in revenue and only a 4.4% increase in gross profit. Gross profit margin fell by 80 basis points to 19.8%.
The only segment that increased its gross margin was Liquorama. People seem to be drinking their problems away – literally.
With total expenses up by 9.1% due to new stores being opened, operating profit never stood a chance. EBIT as reported was down 20%, while adjusted EBITDA fell by 28.9%.
Once you include a small increase in net finance costs, it gets even worse for HEPS: down 50% year-on-year.
Despite this, the dividend for the period is only 37.5% lower. This decision to soften the blow in the dividend would’ve been informed by free cash flow more than doubling year-on-year.
They are bravely expanding in their markets. They just need the markets to be kinder to them.
Grand Parade’s earnings took a knock (JSE: GPL)
They are fully focused on gaming assets – and that’s tough
Grand Parade Investments released results for the six months to December 2025. Although there are some green shoots in the broader gaming sector in South Africa, HEPS has fallen sharply by 18.5%.
The most important contributor to earnings used to be SunWest – the owner of the GrandWest casino and Table Bay Hotel. Regular readers may recall that the Table Bay Hotel recently changed operator, so this segment saw revenue decrease by around R300 million.
SunWest’s EBITDA fell from R377.5 million to R277.8 million. The dividends received by Grand Parade for its stake came to R16.6 million (vs. R24.1 million in the prior period). Finally, the headline earnings contribution by this segment fell by 32%.
In contrast, GPI Slots saw a 12% increase in headline earnings, which makes it a larger segment than SunWest in the latest numbers! Revenue was up just 2% and EBITDA was steady, so the improvement happened below that line. Importantly, Grand Parade received dividends of R12 million (vs. nil in the prior period).
The Worcester Casino saw a slight uptick in revenue to R61.3 million. The net loss was R400k vs. R800k in the prior period. Regional casinos aren’t good assets at the moment.
The improvement at Worcester Casino was more than offset by Infinity Gaming Africa, the smallest segment, which slipped into a small loss-making position.
Looking ahead, the group is still looking for ways to participate in the Historical Horseracing segment of the gaming market. This is apparently growing strongly in the US.
This doesn’t mean dusting off old horses and getting them to run – no, this entails betting on the outcome of horse races that already happened. There are apparently many different ways to entertain yourself.
Heriot REIT is delivering very high growth for a property group (JSE: HET)
Mid-teens growth rates are almost unheard of
Heriot REIT released results for the six months to December 2025. Distributable earnings increased by 16.3% and the distribution per share followed suit. That’s approximately double what would normally be considered a solid performance in this sector!
Heriot’s property portfolio increased its net operating income (NOI) by 6% for the six months to December 2025. The performance varies dramatically by underlying segment. For example, the industrial portfolio only grew NOI by 3%, while office was up by an impressive 16%. Hospitality/aparthotels grew by an excellent 66%. Retail, which is by far the largest segment, was up 5%.
The net asset value per share jumped by 20.7% to R22.90. Aside from a bargain purchase gain on the Safari transaction, this was also driven by higher property values.
The loan-to-value ratio has increased from 38.95% to 43.36%, with the debt for the Safari buyout as the pressure point here. That’s on the high side, and I expect that investors would want to see it come down.
The targeted increase in the dividend per share for the year ending June 2026 is 14% to 17%. This is a significant improvement on the previous guided range of 10% to 15%.
The upgrade in guidance is thanks to the portfolio performing ahead of expectations and the debt environment being favourable to the company.
The jury is still out on whether Kore Potash will be sold or built under current ownership (JSE: KP2)
All options are on the table
Kore Potash, owner of the Kola Project in the Republic of Congo, has certainly had a year to remember. They’ve released results for the 12 months to December 2025, a busy period that required a net cash outflow of $13 million.
They had $10.6 million in cash left by December 2025. That won’t be enough to see them through to March 2027. This means that capital will need to be raised to fund working capital requirements. The only certainty in the junior mining industry is dilution of shareholders over time!
Much of the activity in the first half of 2025 was focused on securing the capital to develop the Kola Project. This was based on the Optimised Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) that was released in February 2025.
The DFS estimated a net present value (NPV) of $1.7 billion for the project at a discount rate of 10%. The estimated internal rate of return (IRR) is 18%. That stuff you learnt in finance class at varsity has real-world application!
OWI-RAMS GMBH executed a term sheet with Kore Potash in June 2025 to provide the total funding requirement. The intention was to arrange a funding package of $2.2 billion through a combination of senior secured project finance and royalty financing.
We are still waiting to see that package. It does take time to put these things together, but Kore Potash doesn’t have all day to sit around.
In November 2025, to keep all options open regarding the future of the company, Kore Potash commenced a formal sale process. Two parties initially approached them, with only one remaining interested and conducting a due diligence.
And on top of all of this, PowerChina and Kore Potash have started on selected workstreams at the site.
That’s quite a year! The share price is up 52% over 12 months. It also happens to be up by more than 350% over 3 years. When risky mining companies make progress, the rewards are significant. But many risks are still at play here.
Remgro’s INAV story is tame, but the cash is quite exciting (JSE: REM)
Will they finally ramp up the share repurchases?
Remgro, like all investment holding companies, is fighting a constant battle against the market. Investors want to value the shares at a substantial discount to the intrinsic net asset value (INAV) per share. Or, put simply, the market isn’t prepared to pay the price for the shares that directors say they are worth.
Much of this is because Remgro’s portfolio is so skewed towards other listed companies that investors can just go and buy directly. There are other reasons as well, like the costs of Remgro’s structure and the risk of management doing things that shareholders don’t approve of.
The obvious solution in this case is to execute share buybacks. After all, if Remgro’s INAV per share is R297.03, why wouldn’t they buy shares in the market at R185?
Instead, Remgro is obsessed with cash dividends. They’ve even used special dividends before. Although more cash visibility does help reduce the discount to INAV to some extent, I think it would reduce a lot faster if they did share repurchases instead.
There’s certainly no shortage of cash: in the six months to December 2025, Remgro enjoyed a 34% increase in dividends received from investee companies. This excludes the once-off CIVH pre-implementation dividend of nearly R2.6 billion.
If we look deeper into the portfolio, we find that one of the worries is Mediclinic’s exposure to the United Arab Emirates. Remgro is in the process of negotiating a deal to swap the exposure to Mediclinic’s international business for total control over the South African assets. I suspect that this became a much more difficult negotiation in the past month.
Although headline earnings is not the right measure of performance for an investment holding company, it does at least help us compare the performance across unlisted and listed investee companies. The only blemish in the result was RCL Foods (JSE: RCL), with that listed company struggling with conditions in the sugar industry.
Everything else grew headline earnings – including Mediclinic! Remember, these results only cover the period until December, long before the troubles in Iran kicked off.
Heineken Beverages deserves a special mention, with headline earnings of R155 million vs. a loss of R11 million in the prior period. That’s a much better performance, particularly in an environment of weak demand. I know for sure that my dad did his best to boost sales of Windhoek beer.
Sticking with alcohol, spirits business Capevin suffered a 53% decline in profits. People just aren’t drinking as heavily as they used to. It’s not about whether they are stopping entirely. It’s about a moderation in consumption and what that means for overall demand. Having three drinks instead of four means that you cut your consumption by 25%!
Another investment worth mentioning is fibre business CIVH, where headline earnings swung from a loss of R141 million to profit of R123 million. Both Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa enjoyed an upswing in revenue.
There are many more companies in the portfolio, both listed and unlisted. Once all the moves are taken into account, INAV per share increased 1.6% for the period. More importantly, if you adjust for the distributions during the year, the increase was 3.4%.
I remain steadfast in my view that they should be executing far more share repurchases. But what do you think?
Nibbles:
Director dealings:
KAL Group (JSE: KAL) announced share purchases by two directors to the value of R597k in aggregate.
Datatec (JSE: DTC) announced a bolt-on acquisition that is so small that there are no financial details at all in the announcement. Logicalis Germany, a subsidiary of Datatec, has acquired 100% of NetworkedAssets, a software development, network automation and observability solutions company operating in Germany and Poland. And yes, I also had to Google “observability solutions”! The companies have already been working together for years, so that seems like the right starting point for an acquisition. The deal became effective on 24 March.
Africa Bitcoin Corporation (JSE: BAC) intends to execute a 3-for-1 share split. As the name suggests, this will triple the number of shares in issue, but without any cash flowing. The market cap thus stays the same (in theory), the share price will be a third of what it used to be, and each shareholder will have three shares for each share that they used to have. What’s the point of all this? Usually, to drive increased liquidity and get some trading volumes going in the stock. Shareholders will need to approve the resolutions required to achieve this.
If you are a geologist or mining engineer, then Molefe Mine Phase 1 drilling results at Jubilee Metals (JSE: JBL) may interest you. The rest of us need to rely on management commentary, which in this case includes the CEO being “very excited” about the outcome. Phase 2 drilling is in progress at the eastern extension. The idea is to unlock the resource for processing and refining at Jubilee’s nearby Sable refinery.
Rex Trueform (JSE: RTO) has close to zero liquidity in the stock, so the trading statement only gets mentioned down here. HEPS has sadly dropped by 98.7% for the six months to December 2025. The details behind this drop will be important when they become available. Related company (they even have the same website!) African and Overseas Enterprises (JSE: AOO) is even worse, swinging into a headline loss per share.
Crookes Brothers (JSE: CKS) announced the appointment of Melani De Castro as CFO with effect from 1 April 2026. Hopefully she has a good enough sense of humour to laugh about an April Fool’s appointment date! Most importantly, this is an internal promotion, as De Castro joined the company in 2016. It’s always good to see this kind of thing.
Grindrod (JSE: GND) announced that the SARB has approved the special dividend of 43 cents per share.
In this episode of Ghost Stories, we get stuck into the world of fixed income – a space that retail investors often overlook in favour of equities.
Yusuf Wadee of Satrix concurs with The Finance Ghost’s cricket analogy: fixed income returns act as the singles that keep the scoreboard ticking over. But that doesn’t mean that investors should default to low-yield cash accounts.
Veteran fixed-income portfolio manager James Turp from Ninety One explains how his funds aim to optimise returns in the sweet spot between cash and bonds. And now, with the launch of the Satrix Income Actively Managed ETF (AMETF), investors have an easy way to access this expertise.
Topics covered in this podcast:
How a balanced approach to equities and fixed income helps build an innings
Diversification, volatility, and survivorship bias
How most investors fall into “lazy cash” traps
The structure and purpose of the Satrix Income AMETF
How the partnership between Satrix and Ninety One works
How James constructs an active fixed‑income portfolio
Duration, interest‑rate cycles, and inflation dynamics
Liquidity and accessibility of an actively managed ETF
Tax‑free savings considerations for fixed‑income ETFs
Keen to learn more? Check out the Satrix Income AMETF (JSE: STXINC) here.
Please remember that nothing you hear on Ghost Stories should be treated as advice. You must always speak to your personal financial advisor.
Full Transcript:
The Finance Ghost: Welcome to this episode of the Ghost Stories podcast. It’s going to be a goodie today, where we’re going to be learning all about fixed income. Which, I’ve got to say, is a very, very interesting part of the world of finance.
It’s certainly not my specialisation, and I’m always keen to learn more about it.
The reason we will be having that conversation is because we’re going to learn about the Satrix Income Actively Managed ETF. And the best way to do that is for us to have someone here, not just from Satrix, but also now from Ninety One, a name you may well know.
Before I mention him, let me introduce Yusuf Wadee of Satrix. Yusuf, thank you so much. You are a familiar voice and a familiar face to Ghost Mail listeners. You have done a podcast with me before. You’re a wealth of knowledge, really. And thank you for being here.
I’ll let you say hello first, and then we’ll welcome our esteemed guest from Ninety One.
Yusuf Wadee: Awesome. Thanks, Ghost. Thanks for having me. Excited to get into this very exciting topic with you today.
The Finance Ghost: Absolutely. So, of course, our other guest is James Turp of Ninety One. And James, you are no stranger to anyone who’s been around financial markets for a long time.
You were actually working in the global markets team at Nedbank, at around the time that I may or may not have been doing my CA training articles there. Not very ghostly of me to reveal that!
It’s been a while since I saw you on a trading floor. I was an absolute nobody. Fetching coffee, basically. Not much has changed.
You were important. You still are. Nice to have you. Thank you.
James Turp: Absolute pleasure, Ghost. Thanks for that very kind introduction. I do remember all those years ago. That was during and around the Global Financial Crisis. So, never a dull moment on the trading floor back then.
And thanks – what a pleasure to be on your podcast and to join Yusuf from Satrix as well. Thanks very much for having me.
The Finance Ghost: I’m very excited to dig in here. So, look, the reason we’re talking about fixed income, I think it’s an important place to start – and Yusuf, I’m going to start with you on this one – because I think, the majority of people, when they think of markets, especially retail investors, they kind of think to themselves, “Okay, we’re talking equities, we’re talking about stock-picking, we’re talking about ETFs from Satrix, where I’m going to go and actually buy the Top 40 or the S&P 500”, or whatever the case is.
But actually, as you speak to more investment professionals, then this concept of a balanced portfolio starts to come through.
And look, I missed, unfortunately, all of this T20 tournament because I have just been working very hard in earnings season, so there hasn’t been much cricket for me. But I do know, from the bit of cricket that I did used to play: quick singles and boundaries, you kind of need both.
It feels like in many ways, equities are the boundaries. Trying to hit the fours and sixes.
But it definitely helps to just keep that scoreboard ticking over, and to just earn that fixed-income-style return, to actually build out the different risk profiles in your portfolio.
Do you think that I’m considering this in the correct light? Is that how listeners to this podcast should be thinking about the world of fixed income as they learn about this?
Yusuf Wadee: Thanks Ghost. I think that’s a great analogy.
Think of that batsman. His whole plan is to make a proper innings. In doing so, it’s a combination of singles, low-risk singles. Maybe he squeezes the odd double here and there, but in between those, he goes for the high-risk boundaries, right? He goes for the four, for the six.
I think that’s a great analogy. In many ways that describes diversification, that describes portfolio construction. When you’re putting together an investment portfolio, it’s almost the same principle.
Your low-risk singles, your low-risk doubles are your more subdued investments – your fixed income investments, your local government bonds, your global bonds, as an example, as well as infrastructure. There are other categories of investments that fall in the category of, let’s say, low-risk singles.
Then of course you have your high-risks: high-risk boundaries around the edges, right? You’ve got your local equity markets, your global equity markets. You might like a certain theme which is highly geared to a big development that’s driving global growth going forward, or currently.
That’s an awesome analogy.
In many ways, the financial markets have adopted that same thinking, but they’ve probably called it other things. The listeners have probably heard stuff like “core satellite approach” to building portfolios.
In classic theory, you’ve got, let’s say a core, and it can be any sort of core. A low-cost core or a passive core, or it can even be a fixed-income core. And as a satellite, you can then think of other satellite strategies, whether they are highly active funds or equity funds.
But the whole concept of core satellite is another more formal description of exactly what you described with that cricketing analogy. And again, what you’ve described is pretty much the cornerstone of almost all portfolio theory.
If I think of all of our pension funds: mine, yours, pretty much everyone – that has to follow Reg 28 portfolio construction – all portfolios follow a balanced fund approach in some form or another.
Whether some guys have a 60-40 split, so they’ve got 60% equities or 40% bonds. In other cases, they may have a 50-50 split: 50% equity, 50% bonds.
But it’s exactly your analogy. You have to have that combination of singles coupled with boundaries.
There’s real merit as to why that is the case. You think about just playing a cricket match and going for sixes all the time, that innings isn’t going to last very long, right? And it’s the same with the investment portfolio. You can’t just build a long-term investment portfolio just with a one-trick equity play. If you do that, you’re going to have to live with volatility, lots of volatility.
So clearly, diversification brings down volatility. That’s a good thing.
Drawdowns – if you just have a strong equity-focused portfolio, you’re going to have to be very comfortable with big drawdowns. You can think about the current political crisis, the geopolitics that we’re seeing playing out in the Middle East now, currently.
If you’ve just got a single equity portfolio without any cash allocations, bond allocations, or any other form of diversification, your drawdowns will be pretty steep. Certainly a lot steeper than if you had a balanced fund portfolio.
We’ve seen this play out time and time again. The investment industry understands as well. You also see – to take that balance fund concept a little bit further – most people would have heard of lifestage portfolios. They probably call it different things, but most people would have heard of a lifestage portfolio.
So if you go to any fund manager, or any company that sells investment products, most of them would have something called an aggressive balance and a conservative portfolio. Those are exactly balanced funds. They just have a different mix of equities and fixed income.
If you’re a little bit younger in your career or you’ve got a long time to go for retirement, you probably want to be in the more aggressive side. More equities and less fixed income.
Closer to retirement, you still have a balanced fund, but you’ve probably got more fixed income and fewer equities. Hence, the conservative portfolio.
So that analogy is a great starting point. Certainly, fixed income plays a very important role in holistic portfolio construction.
The Finance Ghost: Much like cricket, it’s not quite a traditional game anymore. The rules of thumb have gone. It’s the slog sweep, it’s T20.
And don’t worry – if you hate cricket, I promise that’ll be the end of the cricket analogies. You will survive this podcast. That’s quite enough cricket for today.
But it is a good analogy and there are lots of sporting analogies that you can use. There are lots of life analogies that you can use. It’s risk-taking, at the end of the day – it’s risk/reward.
And the one other concept that comes through clearly, and you’ve already spoken to it there, Yusuf, is survivorship bias.
If you just go for the big sixes, it looks great, until it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t very quickly, then, sorry, that is probably your career out the door.
If it’s Formula One and you take the big risks, and you put it in the wall every time, then, sorry, you’re gone. If it works out well, then great.
And that’s what equity investing is. If you take on too much risk, yeah, sure, you can look like a genius for a while, but a lot of it is going to be luck. And at some point you are going to run out of luck. The markets will humble you. I don’t care who you are and what you do.
And in that moment, you’ll be thankful for the day you had some diversification, and you were taking those singles, or you were just keeping things ticking over.
So, James, that brings me nicely to you. And you’ve been doing this for a long time, as we’ve mentioned: since the Global Financial Crisis, essentially.
Is that what got you into fixed income? Did you just look at the world basically on fire in equities, and you were like, “No, thank you. This is a dumb idea. I’m going to go and play in fixed income and stay there”?
What was it about this space that attracted you to it, and then kept you there for, I don’t know, 20 years now? Almost? Roughly?
James Turp: That’s some flattery there. Thanks, Ghost [Laughs]. It’s been a couple more years, I’ll let the audience work that one out.
I did start actually in the currency markets prior to fixed-income, and moved across to managing fixed-income portfolios as the next natural step.
And what was appealing is, if you think about what makes the world move and what is responsible for a lot – it’s monetary policy. And that is always – in this world of inflation targeting – about cooling off inflation, the number one enemy of investing.
So, as appealing and attractive as equity and all these other risk assets are, it’s the nuts and bolts of the global economy and protecting your portfolios that is the fixed income responsibility.
Like Yusuf said, you use the term “cornerstone” in portfolio management. It’s the appealing and sexy stuff that gets all the headlines. But when the tide goes out, you look to your fixed income portion to see how bad it really is.
And so that’s the game we’re in. It’s trying to build those singles. But try to tick along and get inflation-beating returns as your primary objective.
And I just think it’s so interesting. It focuses on the macro economy, really, and everyone experiences it. When you look at other asset classes, they can seem a little bit removed, but you cannot escape the effects of inflation and interest rates.
And so it’s something that everyone understands, and I think something everyone’s actually really interested in. Sometimes we find it more complicated than it needs to be, Ghost.
The Finance Ghost: I was being slightly kind. You have been doing this since I was in pre-school, but I think it’s because you look so young, which I reckon is because you’ve been on the fixed-income side. It’s just less risky!
You see the benefits here, building this career of taking the singles rather than trying to smack it as far as possible?
What is interesting is that you are, of course, at Ninety One, not at Satrix, which makes this podcast particularly unique as part of the broader podcasts that I’ve done with Satrix.
So let’s maybe talk about that, and understand that link before I go back to Yusuf. So, James, you just basically moved across, as I understand it, this is part of the Sanlam – Ninety One transaction, right?
So maybe just give us literally a minute on what you’re actually doing at Ninety One. What does that new role look like?
James Turp: Effectively, it’s a strategic partnership that Sanlam and Ninety One have. And as a result, Sanlam sold its active asset management to Ninety One, in exchange for shares in the business, and appointed Ninety One as its asset manager of choice, or its preferred asset manager.
So that means our portfolios, our clients from the Sanlam environment, are now in the Ninety One environment. We’re going to be managing those portfolios within the impressive infrastructure and platform of Ninety One, the biggest active asset management business in the country. So that’s really exciting!
And the good news is that the Sanlam products will (for the most part, in the fixed income area that I manage), remain and be managed in the same way. But they are being enhanced now by this absolutely impressive platform on the other side now, on this side, as it were.
So carrying on and indeed growing, and that’s what this product is. It’s an indication of that change. A new product to channel into a new distribution area that’s untapped. So yeah, very excited about this.
The Finance Ghost: I remember when that deal closed, and then there were just a million SENS announcements about how Ninety One has gone through the 5% threshold on JSE-listed companies.
I remember being on X, and people were like, “Wow, Ninety One is buying literally everything on the JSE”. And I’m like, “Guys, relax. They’ve just done the deal with Sanlam [laughs]. That’s what this is. These are the funds coming together.”
Anyway, Ninety One has not suddenly bought all of South Africa. Having said that, it is a landmark deal. So I’m sure everyone on that side is quite excited.
So, let’s then get into why we’re doing this podcast, actually – there’s a new and interesting ETF.
Yusuf, I’m going to bring you in here. There’s clearly more to fixed income than just having your money in a money market account at the bank, which I think is the absolute default, right?
For 99.9% of investors, I think it’s as simple as: if I want to buy shares, I go do a Satrix ETF. Maybe I could do some stock picking. Cool. My emergency fund, and my savings and everything else, sits at the bank. If you’re lucky, in a money market account; if you’re very lucky, an inflation-beating interest rate – and that’s it.
There’s clearly more to it than that, and there can be more to it than that for those who seek it out. So walk us through why this ETF is important, what it is, how it actually works, and, for that matter, how it works with Ninety One involved as well.
Yusuf Wadee: Awesome. What’s interesting is that the overall diversification benefits – that’s number one – that’s a key application for fixed-income products.
Number two, another big application that we see is that we get a lot of investors who approach Satrix and they would want to invest for an income, right?
People invest for different purposes. For a rainy day, you invest for your pension one day when you retire. But a lot of people also just invest to earn an income, right? And so that cannot be underplayed – the importance of investing for an income.
Drawdowns, 7% / 8% / 9% or whatever rates may be at the time – that’s a huge application for us. We’re conscious of the first thing, the diversification play. Two, we’re conscious about people who are looking to invest for income.
Thirdly, another thing that plays out – you mentioned people putting their money in the bank. There’s an interesting dynamic that plays out when it comes to cash. It’s a very behavioural thing. We see this with our clients all the time.
So let’s say you get someone looking to save for something: looking to buy a house, save for his kids’ education, his first car purchase. Whatever it is, let’s say he’s got a purchase he’d like to put in place.
These guys, normally they kind of go “Okay listen, the first thing I want to do is, I go to my bank, start saving cash portion”, right? Now, the reason why that made sense at the time was that in his mind, this person is going “Well, I’m only going to save for about four or five months before I need that cash to do something, right?”.
But ultimately – and this is an interesting behavioural dynamic that we see play out – most people end up in that position for a lot longer than they initially thought they would.
They thought they were going to do this for five months. But lo and behold, often you find two years have passed, or maybe even three years have passed – and they haven’t really gotten to what they started out saving for.
It turns out that a lot of people end up parking cash in very underperforming cash accounts, very low-performing interest-rate accounts. And so it’s a behavioural thing. The banks know this. Well, the banks define it as “lazy deposits”.
The Finance Ghost: The banks love this: sticky deposits, right? Sticky deposits. There’s a term I remember.
Yusuf Wadee: Absolutely, It’s sticky, it’s lazy. And normally, the guys aren’t remunerated for being in there for that period of time. They end up being there for one, two, or three years. It’s unbelievable how sticky these things are.
But the rates they get are pretty small, right? And so we see a big part of the market that falls into this category. And it’s not only banks. We see investors who go to their stockbroking accounts, and they’re meant to start investing.
They’re waiting for the right time to pick the right ETF, or they’re waiting for the market to correct, or they’re waiting for that perfect time. And lo and behold, their cash just builds up, and it sits there for six months. And it sits there for a year and sits there for two years.
And that’s the reason why we’re excited about this fund, right? So we came up with the Satrix Income AMETF; we’ve offered this thing in an ETF form. The reason why is that it turns out the ETF is probably the deepest-penetrating instrument right now.
You can launch a unit trust, and we’ve got lots of unit trusts. But with unit trusts, you have to have an account directly with us, or you have to have an account on a platform where we’re available. That’s how you get access to our Satrix unit trust.
But ETFs are a little bit different, right? We list the ETF on the JSE, and the moment we do so we are available on all stockbroking platforms. If you bank with a certain bank, we are available on their stockbroking app. We are available on a multitude of platforms.
Clients don’t even have to be Satrix clients to access this product. You just need to have access to the JSE. This is the other global appeal of an exchange shared fund. They have democratised investments to such a point purely because they penetrate so deep into the market.
And so really, that’s why we’ve offered this product in an ETF form, number one.
Number two, this ETF is an actively-managed ETF (we’ll get to why we’ve structured this as an actively managed ETF).
But in this regard, we have partnered up with James at Ninety One. James has a fantastic track record of successfully running strategies like this for a really long time, consistently delivering strong risk-adjusted performance. And he’s got the benefit of sitting in a globally-integrated fixed income team at Ninety One, certainly the largest fixed income team in SA.
So, we’re hugely excited by this relationship.
So in a nutshell, Satrix launches this product, and brings it to market, but at the back-end it is managed by James at Ninety One on an actively-managed basis.
This fund is completely actively-measured. I think James will take us through some of his philosophy shortly. But the whole point is that this fund aims to give investors something slightly more than cash, because that’s the whole point, right? Something slightly shorter than bonds. So it sits at the unique space between cash and bonds. The one-year paper, two-year paper, five-year paper.
It’s a very interesting part of the curve, where we think there’s lots of value. It delivers lots of strong cash-plus performance. I mean, the fund that we have launched in conjunction with James aims to pay money-market rates plus about a percent on average. So it aims to beat the average money market by about a percent, which we’re quite excited about.
It has a limited drawdown. Investors couldn’t expect to have a capital loss if they’re investing for periods of more than three months, three-to-six months. Not a very volatile fund.
We’re offering this fund at 46 basis points, which is pretty much institutional-style pricing for everyone. That’s the exciting thing about an exchange traded fund, right? Everyone gets the same deal. There’s no institutional class or retail class.
James can certainly take us through some of his philosophy in terms of exactly the magic behind how he ekes out that 1% of the money market.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, we definitely are going to dig into that, without a doubt.
I think the one thing I just wanted to point out to people – that really does show the distribution, the flexibility, the structuring power of an ETF as a structure – it basically is really just a cool way for people to get access to this kind of thing, which is now very much actively managed.
There have been many podcasts that I’ve done with Satrix team members in the past few years, really, where we’ve kind of debated the passive-versus-active. And tried to take the conversation away from “an ETF is always passive”. No, an ETF is a rules-based thing. It’s a structure. It’s something a little bit different to that.
It doesn’t necessarily always mean passive. And here’s a really good example of that.
And as you say, people’s behaviour costs them money. You put money in a money-market account that’s designed to give you instant access to your funds. That should really be your emergency money, and not much more.
And I’m guilty of it too. I think we all are. Very few people manage their money to that level of precision. You’ve just got too much else going on in your life. It’s kids, it’s family, it’s work, it’s life. You can’t possibly manage your own money to that level of excellence.
But you can try and get closer. You can try and say, “Well, what do I really need this money for?” and then try and actually buy the right point on the curve. As you say, it rewards you for it.
So James, that’s where you certainly come in. And this is, of course, a wonderful opportunity to get a little bit of a masterclass, if you will, from someone who’s been doing this for a long time. All the experience in the world – and trying to understand how your world really works.
What are the building blocks that you’re working with? How are you trying to structure something in the right way?
Give us that fixed-income masterclass, and then how it specifically relates to this product.
James Turp: There are a couple of ways you should look at fixed income.
I think hearing Yusuf ‘s comment earlier – so you’ve got money-market, right, which is basically the collective term for very short-term investments. So something that you’re going to put in the bank; they often call them “call accounts” or money market (slightly better), but it’s where you would put the money that you need immediately.
That’s not what I’m focused on. I’m focused on more committed funds.
So you’ve got the extreme now, which is bonds. And just by definition, the word “bond” shows you that it’s a commitment. And though liquid, it’s basically an investment of money for a fixed period of time that’s going to pay you interest over this holding period.
But in between now and getting your money back, a lot can happen. So things can get risky. And if you were to need your money sooner, you could take a capital loss or a capital gain. But that’s a commitment.
We try and structure products in between the two as well (so in between money market and bonds, which is the extreme).
So the basis of fixed income is built around inflation. Inflation is what eats away at the buying power of your money. So, a rand can buy less in a year’s time than it can now, if inflation is high, or wherever inflation sits. So we want to get investors at least ahead of inflation.
And money-market funds in South Africa tend to do that, because we have what they call “positive real rates” – “real” meaning the difference between inflation and what you’re earning.
We want to reward people even more. And we often talk about it as your loyalty. The loyalty of your deposit of money should be rewarded. And so if you’re thinking, “My cash could be there for three months, six months, 12 months or more”, you should try and correlate that to an investment product.
In doing that, you also find in the market, the assets that we would look to buy will pay you more for longer-term commitment. So collectively, in a product like this actively-managed Satrix ETF, we can put all sorts of those fixed-income investments in, and structure a liquidity signature in the fund, that can match these types of investors.
To structure a portfolio like that, you actually need to put a number of different assets in. You’d put a number of fixed-rate bonds and floating-rate bonds, as well your cash-type instruments as well. So floating-rate bonds are a big part of the strategy – and those are also commitments.
But the interest rate changes, like a home loan – if you think about all of our home loans, rates go up – suddenly, you get that letter from the bank quite quickly, that your rate is now even more [laughs]. And if rates come down, of course, that’s the good news, you’ll be paying less.
Well, the opposite applies in these of course, rates go up – you’re actually happy that you’ve got those, because you’re going to be earning more, and vice versa.
So, it’s about getting the right amount of interest rate risk, for the current economic cycle that we believe we’re in.
And that’s where the Reserve Bank comes into it, and that’s where the economy comes into it. Because the Reserve Bank is trying to keep inflation at 3%. We know that the change was made last year and adopted by the National Treasury. So we know they’re trying to keep it at 3%.
But if inflationary pressures grow, they hike interest rates. The theory being, if you hike interest rates, the cost of doing business or the cost of inflationary pursuit is cooled, and then slowly inflation moderates down. That’s the relationship between monetary policy and inflation.
So we need to sit and work out, as a team, where we think we are in the interest rate and inflation cycle. If we think that inflation for the next two years is going to be under control, or if it’s going to be lower or higher, then we would forecast what we think interest rates would do to respond to that.
But the market’s smarter than us. Collectively, the market always prices in the “efficient market hypothesis”, that all known information usually is priced into the market.
So when you look at interest rates, what they’re discounting normally corresponds to the inflation expectations collectively of the market. So we as active managers have to work out: do we think the market’s right or wrong? Do we think inputs will be different?
But ultimately, how should we position this portfolio to benefit from any discrepancies that may exist? Or if we can’t find any, what’s the best position on the curve for the current expectations?
And that’s the beauty of this fund. It’s flexible. And so it can one day – as an extreme, it can look like a money market fund- and the next day it could look like a bond fund. It’s highly unlikely it’s going to be that much of a chameleon. It’s going to operate somewhere in the middle.
We want to keep its risk as low as possible, but we want to get on the best risk-adjusted area on the curve, meaning: where do we think we’re getting the most reward for the least amount of risk?
And that seems to be, for example, at the moment, somewhere around the two-year area on average. That doesn’t mean you’re buying two-year fixed deposits though. It means you’re structuring a portfolio with a number of fixed-rate bonds and a number of floating rate bonds and cash, the average of which, if we simplify things, the interest rate risk arrives at somewhere around two years. It could be one year, it could be three years. It just depends where you think – but it’s important that we acknowledge that sometimes you may just want to get a low-risk, fixed-income portfolio. We don’t want to take too much risk for these.
What we’re telling investors is its rewarding you for your loyalty and for the time that money is going to be in there. And we don’t want to create unnecessary volatility.
So that’s the general thinking around this sort of vehicle. For many years now, this area of fixed income in South Africa has been the fastest-growing area of investment. It’s a good move by Satrix to include such a product in their already impressive offering.
The Finance Ghost: Thanks, James. That’s a fantastic amount of insight there. Very, very cool. You’ve spoken to positive real rates there in South Africa. It certainly does make fixed income quite exciting here.
I would think you’ve actually got interest rates to work with, that move around – you’re not sitting in a developed market where it’s little incremental changes. Although these days, it’s a whole lot more volatile than I ever remember it. But still, it feels like emerging markets are the fun place to be with this.
I think that point – that it’s fixed income, not fixed returns – has come through in what you’ve described. It’s a fixed-income instrument. It’s a thing that pays a set amount, or at least references a rate, whatever the case may be.
But actually, a lot of other stuff happens. It was, for me, the scariest of the CFA textbooks. So, much respect for everything you do in this space. Lots of maths, as opposed to lots of storytelling, which is more my world in equities. But it is very, very interesting and I’m not surprised you spend so many years doing it because it changes all the time.
And like you said, it’s an optimisation process. It’s baking, not cooking. It’s finding that perfect little amount that changes everything. That’s really what you’re doing, which is a very cool space, very technical.
And Yusuf, that’s obviously why you’ve partnered with James – to actually make this work, to do this actively-managed ETF. Wearing my investor hat, I listened to this, and I’m like, “Okay, so the idea here would be that net of fees, I get a better outcome here than I do – not necessarily in a money-market account because there’s a slightly different risk, I have to commit my money for a bit longer here.”
That’s what I’m hearing. So I just want to make sure, for listeners, they understand where this competes with other alternatives to get that fixed income return on their money, and how they think about it going into the portfolio?
James Turp: I just wanted to make sure – the access to your funds is always immediate in this product. It’s advised that you keep your cash there for a bit longer, but you always have access to your liquidity. So I think that’s just an important point there.
The beauty of this is, you always have access to your money, but it’s advised that you match your minimum investment period with the sort of fund you invest in. We don’t want to make the audience think, “We’ve got to commit to this”. No one wants commitment in this day and age! [laughs].
Yusuf Wadee: [Laughs]. As James said, it’s readily available. It’s a daily-traded fund. Investors can buy in at 10 o’ clock in the morning, and they can sell at four in the afternoon. It’s listed on the JSE, you trade it whenever you like. It’s real-time liquidity. And that’s the beauty of an exchange-traded fund.
The comment around term was, that’s where this fund ekes out that premium. It’s invested in paper that has exposure to term. But it doesn’t mean your money is locked up for term. You can cash out as and when you like.
So that’s the beauty of these types of funds. Income funds, money-market funds, they clearly form an aggregation of lots of different instruments, some short-term, some long-term.
But as a whole, they are very much a daily-traded experience. That’s why they do have an advantage of simply just putting your money in a bank account, putting your money with one instrument, with one person.
Back to your earlier comment. As you pointed out, Satrix is an indexation house. We offer index product, index-tracking manager. We offer index-tracking products in a variety of spaces and asset classes.
If you think about, “How do you get access to the US?”, well, we’ve got an S&P 500 ETF. Access to India? Well, we’ve got an MSCI India. We are passionate, and that’s something that is the cornerstone of what we believe at Satrix.
The interesting thing however, is that when you look at the fixed income space, this is an interesting quantitative dynamic. Few parts of the fixed-income market actually lend themselves to indexation.
Take bonds as an example. The long-term bonds, the bonds that hang around, they’ve got a 10-year maturity; 15-, 20- year maturities. Those long-dated instruments, right?
Those instruments actually lend themselves very well to being indexed. In fact, there are indices of those bonds, and Satrix tracks those indices. We’ve got a Satrix government bond ETF, inflation-linked bond ETF. We’ve got a Satrix global bond fund that gives you access to global bonds.
But what is a very interesting thing, is that it’s actually quite difficult to index the short term money market; the short-term paper. This is an interesting thing that not many people appreciate. There doesn’t exist a credible, replicable short-term fixed-income index.
The market would have heard of STeFI. Everyone talks about the STeFI index. Well, the STeFI is an index that simply reports performance of short-term paper.
It’s not something that I can invest alongside the STeFI recipe. I can’t break down the STeFI, look at the component parts, invest exactly in line with it and then achieve the STeFI performance.
That’s an interesting thing that plays out in the fixed-income space, and that’s really the reason why we’ve partnered up and gone down the active-managed route for this space. Because it’s pretty difficult to try to do this via a traditional index route.
It’s certainly our view that this is the best way to deliver product in this space – something between cash and bonds. As James mentioned, the sweet spot is the duration of two years or just under.
We’re super excited about it, and this is certainly, in our view, the best way to play this part of the market – via an active-managed strategy. Hence why we launched the Satrix Income AMETF.
The Finance Ghost: So Yusuf, then maybe just to finish off on this point, I know tax-free savings are always top of mind for investors. We’ve just seen that annual allowance go up actually, which is quite exciting.
I imagine this works like any other ETF. If you want to hold it in your tax-free savings account, you can?
Although individual investors do actually benefit from some tax-free interest every year, and they should definitely just think that through, don’t necessarily go and waste your tax-free allowance holding interest-earning instruments when you can get interest-free returns without being in it. Go and speak to your financial advisor please.
I guess the point I wanted to check, Yusuf, is: it can go into your tax-free savings account if you want to use it as a way to either park money, or balance risk, or whatever the case may be, right? It’s like any other ETF?
Yusuf Wadee: Certainly. It’s available on SatrixNOW or any other tax-free platform that clients may have access to, where they can access the JSE’s range of exchange-traded funds. That tax-free savings account is a fantastic vehicle for lots of South Africans to get into the discipline of long-term savings.
And in many ways, the products we bring to market play exactly to the space where people investing in platforms like SatrixNOW can easily make a decision about these products.
Products we’d like to think are super succinct; they’re very simplistic to understand – and so investors can quickly form a view on whether they like these types of payoffs or not.
Classic point: if you like the US, we’ve got S&P 500; you like South Africa, you’ve got the Satrix 40.
In very much the same vein, we think if investors want access to the cash market, let’s assume they just can’t make up their minds about bonds.
Maybe it’s something a little bit tough for them to get their heads around, but if they want something better than cash, this is certainly a product we think is super simplistic and provides very efficient exposure to this part of the market.
So, if you want access to short-term cash, that part of the yield curve, we’re super excited about this product.
The Finance Ghost: Yusuf, thank you so much; James, thank you so much. You’ve really shed some good light there on your world. Fixed income, it’s obviously a gigantic topic. We could do 10 podcasts! There’s a reason why those CFA fixed-income textbooks are quite thick. And that was not the intention today.
It was really just to give people an idea of the kind of thinking that goes behind this, and most of all to expose investors to the fact that this product now does exist. The Satrix Income Actively Managed ETF.
If you want someone like James making clever decisions on the curve with your money, and you want to take advantage of the excellent Satrix distribution and the low fees, then this is a very viable alternative.
Obviously, as always, speak to your financial advisor, make sure you understand the product properly, and do the research.
Yusuf, James, thank you so much for your time on this. Good luck with this one.
Yusuf, Satrix has been so busy launching new products, it’s insane. It really is outrageous. James, I’m sure you’ve been busy too, but the amount of new products coming out of Satrix right now is incredible, actually. Really good to see, so well done.
To both of you, thank you for your time today.
James Turp: Thank you, Ghost.
Yusuf Wadee: Thanks for having us.
Disclaimer:
Satrix Managers (RF) (Pty) Ltd a registered and approved Manager in Collective Investment Schemes in Securities. Collective investment schemes are generally medium- to long-term investments. With Unit Trusts, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Actively managed ETFs (AMETFs) the investor essentially owns a “proportionate share” (in proportion to the participatory interest held in the fund) of the underlying investments held by the fund. With Unit Trusts, the investor holds participatory units issued by the fund while in the case of an ETFs and AMETFs, the participatory interest, while issued by the fund, comprises a listed security traded on the stock exchange. ETFs and AMETF are registered as a Collective Investment and can be traded by any stockbroker on the stock exchange, LISP platforms and or via online trading platforms. ETFs and AMETFs may incur additional costs due to it being listed on the JSE. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance, and the value of investments / units may go up or down. A schedule of fees and charges, and maximum commissions are available on the Minimum Disclosure Document or upon request from the Manager. Collective investments are traded at ruling prices and can engage in borrowing and scrip lending. Should the respective portfolio engage in scrip lending, the utility percentage and related counterparties can be viewed on the ETF and AMETF Minimum Disclosure Document. The index, the applicable tracking error and the portfolio performance relative to the index can be viewed on the ETF and AMETF Minimum Disclosure Document. International investments or investments in foreign securities could be accompanied by additional risks such as potential constraints on liquidity and repatriation of funds, macroeconomic risk, political risk, foreign exchange risk, tax risk, settlement risk as well as potential limitations on the availability of market information. AMETF are ETFs which are actively traded by a Portfolio Manager to adjust the AMETF holdings and asset allocation with the aim to outperform the benchmark. AMETF differ from ETFs which only track indices. The Manager does not provide any guarantee either with respect to the capital or the return of a portfolio. Satrix retains full legal responsibility for the co-named portfolios.
The management of this investment is outsourced to Sanlam Investment Management (Pty) Ltd, an authorised Financial Services Provider (FSP No. 579) that forms part of the Ninety One group of companies.
Burstone is at the lower end of guidance for distributable earnings (JSE: BTN)
The South African property portfolio is outperforming Europe
Burstone released a pre-close update for the year ending March 2026. The key takeout is that distributable earnings for FY26 will increase by 2% to 3%, which is at the lower end of full-year guidance. The dividend payout ratio will be maintained at 90%.
The South African portfolio is doing the heavy lifting. Accounting for around 80% of group income, this portfolio enjoyed an uplift in net property income of 4% to 5%. The retail portfolio has been an exceptional performer, contributing 45% of the South African portfolio and growing by 8% to 19% in this period.
The same can’t be said for Europe, where the like-for-like performance was slightly down vs. the prior period. Higher vacancy rates were a major factor here. Despite the pressure in Europe, Burstone will be launching a new light-industrial platform in the region with Hines European Real Estate Partners. Burstone will invest 20% of the equity and will act as investment and asset manager, unlocking fee income along the way.
In Australia, they are growing off a low base and securing additional capital from partners to deploy in the region.
Burstone still hasn’t made any final decisions around a South African property platform with external investors, even though we’ve been hearing about this strategy for a couple of years now. Given the local performance, perhaps they don’t want to dilute their equity ownership in these assets?
Overall, the group’s fund and asset management activities now contribute between 15% and 17% of group earnings vs. just 10.7% in FY25.
The loan-to-value ratio sits at 40%, right at the top of the group’s target range. To help manage it, they expect to recycle capital through South African asset disposals.
My overall read is that they are growing with Other People’s Money (every banker’s favourite concept) in Europe and Australia, while being cautious with any dilution in South Africa. That’s not a bad thing at all.
The market has no love for Bytes Technology Group at the moment (JSE: BYI)
The share price has halved in the past year – and shed 15% on Tuesday!
Bytes Technology Group is having a tough time. They are far too reliant on businesses like Microsoft, evidenced by the impact of changes to Microsoft’s enterprise incentive structures. The market used to be willing to pay a high Price/Earnings multiple for this story. But not anymore.
In a trading update for the year ended February 2026, Bytes confirmed that they performed in line with the outlook they gave in October 2025. This means double-digit gross invoiced income growth.
Although gross profit was up 6% in the final two months of this financial year, the outlook is for flat operating profit in FY27.
To make it worse, the underlying assumption in achieving flat operating profit is that gross profit will be up by high single-digit to low double-digit percentages in FY27. If they miss that gross profit target, does that mean that operating profit will decrease year-on-year?
In case you’re wondering, the expected cost pressures relate to higher technology costs and a “return to normal bonus levels” alongside higher headcount – not the kind of thing that investors want to read when a share price is in the toilet.
Forgiveness will come if the headcount and bonus investment translates into a more resilient business that is capable of growing. They have initiatives across the private and public sector to make this happen.
And if it doesn’t? Well, on a P/E of 13x, there’s still plenty of room to drop further – especially as a growth stock with broken wings.
What’s your view on this one?
Discovery is selling a R831 million investment that you probably didn’t know they had (JSE: DSY)
Ever heard of Cambridge Mobile Telematics?
As a reminder of the sheer scale of Discovery, the company has announced the disposal of approximately half of its stake in Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) for R831 million.
The returns here are a bit of a joke. In 2014, Discovery invested $5 million for a 21.67% stake. After plenty of dilution (and a delicious partial sale for $28.5 million), Discovery’s stake in CMT had reduced to 8.7%.
This means that Discovery is now selling around 4.3% in CMT for $49.5 million (that’s where the R831 million is coming from).
This has obviously been an incredible investment in the company that has provided the expertise powering the telematics side of Discovery Insure’s operations. They turned $5 million into $78 million over 12 years!
What’s the lesson here? If your company is going to make another company very valuable, then make sure you get an equity stake along the way.
Losses have nearly halved at Gemfields (JSE: GML)
They’ve had a couple of very tough years
Gemfields released a trading update for the year ended December 2025. The good news is that the headline loss per share has improved by 44.8% in rand terms. The bad news is that they are expecting a loss of 21.6 cents on a share price of R1.10.
Due to the recent rights issue to recapitalise the company, the weighted average number of shares in issue has increased by roughly 26%. More shares in issue is usually a negative point, as it is dilutive to HEPS. But when a company is in a loss-making situation instead, it actually spreads the losses across more shares!
In other words: the underlying business performance is worse than what’s implied by the 44.8% improvement in headline loss per share.
This shouldn’t be a surprise. The year was affected by operational interruptions at both the ruby and emerald mines. There’s been a delay in the final commissioning of the PP2 ruby processing plant, with this issue expected to continue well into the first half of 2026. In addition to the internal issues, auction outcomes during the year were a mixed bag. Only high-quality emeralds and rubies achieved an encouraging pricing trajectory, with the lower-quality stuff under pressure.
They need to achieve further deleveraging of the balance sheet (i.e. reductions in debt). If they don’t achieve a substantial improvement in the operations, I’m scared that this might involve asking shareholders for more money.
The share price is down 72% over 3 years. Yikes.
Insimbi Industrial Holdings has reduced losses (JSE: ISB)
But they haven’t swung into profits just yet
Insimbi Industrial Holdings released a trading statement for the year ended February 2026. They expect the headline loss per share to improve by at least 30% vs. the prior period’s loss of 6.5 cents per share.
But that means that there is still a loss.
EBITDA is expected to be at least 40% up on the prior period. Aside from better revenues, they’ve also reduced costs during the year. These benefits were partially offset by the once-off costs incurred to close loss-making operations during the period.
The share price has lost nearly half of its value over 3 years, so a couple of rough years have taken their toll. The good news is that the price is up 7% over 12 months, so perhaps it bottomed in the past year and wants to move higher?
MAS is firmly a NAV growth story these days (JSE: MSP)
Will shareholders ever see another dividend?
You may recall all the corporate activity around MAS towards the end of last year. Despite being one of the more obscure JSE-listed property funds, MAS became the focus of a battle between Prime Kapital and South African institutional investors.
Prime Kapital emerged victorious, which means that MAS is now firmly a net asset value (NAV) unlock play rather than a dividend play. Investors are far more likely to see share buybacks than further dividends from MAS. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s outside of the norm in the property sector.
The company has changed its most relevant measure of performance. Instead of distributable earnings per share, they will be using total shareholder return (the growth in NAV per share over 12 months, plus any payments made to shareholders).
On that note, the total shareholder return for the 12 months ended December 2025 was 7%. That sounds encouraging, but underlying earnings per share for the six months to December 2025 came in much lower than the comparable period.
This is where you need to be careful. Total shareholder return will always be reported on a trailing twelve months basis, even when the company releases interim results for a six-month period.
There are various reasons why earnings per share was just 1.97 eurocents in this period vs. 12.01 eurocents in the prior period.
For example, the trading environment was nowhere near as strong in Romania in this period as it was in the prior period. They also sold a property portfolio in January 2025 and reinvested the proceeds at lower returns. There was a negative fair value adjustment on a property in Germany that is in the process of being sold.
There was also a loss attributable to the ordinary shares in the DJV joint venture. Aside from underlying pressures on development activity, there were higher finance costs in the DJV after debt was raised to acquire shares in MAS.
The loan-to-value ratio at MAS is 21%, which is lower than 25.6% as at December 2024.
In a separate announcement, PK Investments (listed on the Cape Town Stock Exchange) has announced a bid to increase its stake in MAS from the current level of 37%. They want to acquire up to 40 million shares at a guided price of R19.75 per share, although the final pricing of the offer will be based on a clearing price.
40 million shares represent roughly 5.5% of total MAS shares in issue. The other important point is that the MAS share price is currently R19.70.
Netcare seems to be doing well (JSE: NTC)
EBITDA margin is the important thing to watch
Ahead of an investor conference at Sun City, Netcare has provided a voluntary update on the operating performance for the five months to February 2026.
Normalised paid patient days grew by 0.8% for the period. The acute business was up 0.5%, impacted by changes in the medical scheme industry that are affecting member utilisation. Mental health was up 2.9%, giving us another great reminder of the times we live in (and where Netcare is investing).
Both the acute and mental health businesses are expected to have a strong second half performance based on increases in the number of beds and other initiatives.
Revenue for the period was up by 4.5%. Although that doesn’t sound like much, it was enough to drive a slight increase in the EBITDA margin. This means that Netcare is doing a good job of controlling costs.
R292 million was invested in share buybacks during the period at an average price of R16.08 per share. The current share price is R16.56.
Nibbles:
Director dealings:
The CFO of Thungela (JSE: TGA) has sold shares worth R43 million as part of the early termination of an off-market collar hedge over 250,000 ordinary shares. The structure was entered into in April 2024. In a separate announcement, the company noted that the group’s HR exec sold shares worth R2.7 million.
The CEO of Marshall Monteagle (JSE: MMP) bought shares worth over R2.5 million.
Aimia (JSE: AII) has reported results for the quarter and year ended December 2025. This Canadian-listed holding company listed quietly on the JSE recently. The group’s recently appointed executive chairman is Rhys Summerton, who also happens to be the CEO of iOCO (JSE: IOC). Naturally, people are speculating about the plans here. There’s absolutely no liquidity in Aimia on the JSE at the moment, so the results are a somewhat moot point for now. The group is sitting on cash of $109.2 million. With a deal in place to sell specialty chemicals business Giovanni Bozzetto, they expect to generate net proceeds of $265 to $271 million. That’s quite a war chest…
Tharisa (JSE: THA) announced improved trade facilities for its subsidiary that trades chrome concentrates. Local and international banks have provided two separate facilities of $45 million in total, with an accordion of $15 million. As a reminder, an accordion allows a facility to be increased in size without changing any of the other terms. Support from the banks is always good news.
Between September 2025 and March 2026, PBT Holdings (JSE: PBT) repurchased shares to the value of R22.8 million. The average price paid was R6.69. The current share price is R7.00.
In today’s edition of ASP Isotopes (JSE: ISO) keeping SENS busy, the company announced that a UK subsidiary of Quantum Leap Energy has commenced a strategic collaboration with the University of Bristol for the design of a state-of-the-art lithium laser research facility. And yes, this is another SENS announcement that should’ve just been a press release.
Jubilee Metals (JSE: JBL) announced that the Phase 1 drilling results at the Molefe copper mine have been delayed pending sign-off from the Competent Person (as defined in the listing rules). They will release the results as soon as sign-off is complete.
ADvTECH delivers the usual story: great education numbers and weak resourcing results (JSE: ADH)
Encouragingly, the South Africa Schools Division is still doing well
For the year ended December 2025, AdvTECH’s revenue was up 10% and HEPS increased by 17%. The dividend per share followed suit, up nearly 17%. These are strong numbers that reflect the benefits of consistent revenue growth and improving margins.
Return on Equity (ROE) is now in the 20s, coming in at 20.6% vs. 19.7% in the prior year. A fixed asset base (like a group of schools) that generates an increasing stream of profits is a beautiful thing to own.
ADvTECH has succeeded where Curro could not: they have built a strong primary and secondary education business in South Africa that is capable of long-term growth and impressive margins. Above all else, this is because they chose to build a premium offering, rather than a more affordable offering that could compete with the better government schools.
The Schools South Africa segment grew revenue by 10% in 2025 and operating profit by 13%. Operating margin was 20.9%, up a tasty 40 basis points vs. 2024. This is despite growth in student numbers of just 1%, so parents at these schools are having to dig deep to get the best possible education for their kids.
The real margin hero is Schools Rest of Africa, where revenue was up 28% and operating profit jumped 33%. Operating margin came in at 33.7%, a remarkable level that is even higher than the 32.4% achieved in 2024.
The Tertiary division grew revenue by 13% and operating profit by 14%. Operating margin was 26.8%, 20 basis points higher than 26.6% in 2024. At least two of ADvTECH’s brands plan to apply for university status under the new regulations that have created this pathway.
We now reach the ugliest of ugly ducklings: the ever-suffering Resourcing division, where revenue fell 6% and operating profit was down 9%. Operating margin has been stuck between 6.3% and 6.6% for the past four years. Practically all the profit is made in Rest of Africa, rather than South Africa.
The only reason that I can think of to keep the Resourcing division is that it’s an asset-light model, so even a modest level of profit is reasonably attractive for the group in terms of return on capital.
Or perhaps they just can’t find a buyer for it?
Fairvest is on track to deliver double-digit growth to B-share investors (JSE: FTA | JSE: FTB)
When times are good, the more variable B shares are where you want to be
Fairvest has released a pre-close update for the six months to March 2026. They expect to meet the upper end of the guided growth in distribution per B share of between 9% and 11%.
70.5% of the portfolio’s revenue is from the retail portfolio. 18.4% is in office, with the remaining 11.1% in industrial. Group reversions were positive 5.8%, so there’s solid momentum in demand for Fairvest’s space.
The retail portfolio’s reversions of 5.3% are below the group average, with vacancy rates having ticked up from 3.6% to 4.8%. But here’s another important point: the reversion is significant better than the positive 2.5% in the prior year, so the vacancy rate might be due to Fairvest’s desire to obtain better pricing on the leases.
The office portfolio is a nice surprise: positive reversions of 5.7% are higher than in the retail portfolio! The vacancy rate has moved higher though, up from 9.0% to 9.7%.
In the industrial portfolio, reversions were 8.3%. This remains a highly attractive asset class in South Africa. Although vacancies jumped from 1.2% to 5.4%, these portfolios tend to be lumpy by nature.
With the loan-to-value ratio expected to be below 27%, the balance sheet is in particularly good shape.
Excellent growth at Heriot REIT (JSE: HET)
It’s rare to see property companies growing at such a high rate
Heriot REIT has released a trading statement for the six months to December 2025. They expect their distribution per share to jump by between 15.2% and 17.0% – that’s a big move!
The net asset value per share is expected to be between 20.2% and 21.3% higher. It’s extremely unusual to see per-share moves of this magnitude at a property fund.
When full results become available, it’s going to be important to dig into the details.
Tough times at Hulamin, as the group swings into losses (JSE: HLM)
Operational setbacks have really hurt the business
Hulamin has released results for the year ended December 2025. Brace yourself: they aren’t pretty! The market at least knew about the problems ahead of this release, with the dire situation having been flagged in trading statements released by the company.
The big issues related to the commissioning of their plant following an integrated shutdown. They had operational setbacks that destroyed the numbers, with Hulamin reporting revenue growth of 2% and an operating profit decline of a shocking 79% for the year.
On a HEPS from continuing operations level, they swung from profit of 77 cents to losses of -21 cents.
Here’s another number that isn’t good news: net debt has increased by 24% to R1.65 billion. Although they are still meeting covenants, this isn’t the direction of travel that investors want to see.
The good news is that the late start up and the metal filtration system failure issues will not impact the new financial year. In terms of plant stability, they expect to reach production nameplate capacity by the end of Q1 2026.
The bad news is that the extrusions disposal still has a while to go, with that company generating losses in the meantime.
One thing is for sure: there’s no shortage of headaches at Hulamin.
Flat revenue and some pressure on profits at Oceana (JSE: OCE)
Shareholders can once again thank their Lucky Star
Oceana has released a voluntary trading update for the 5 months to 22 February 2026. I assume they have important weekly accounting processes (like many FMCG companies) and they chose this random date as a sensible cut-off for this update. Results for the six months to 31 March 2026 will be released in late May.
Revenue for this period is described as being consistent with the prior period, while operating profit has come in slightly lower.
As usual in a diversified fishing group, there’s good news and bad news when you dig into the segmentals.
Starting with the highlights, Lucky Star enjoyed a 6.7% uptick in sales volumes during the period thanks to the demand for canned fish. I wonder to what extent the inflation in beef played a role here? Canned beef also grew strongly (now 9% of total sales volume), so consumers are clearly looking for value here.
Lucky Star somehow managed to increase margins despite a 77% decrease in local production. The strong rand made imports more affordable, while lower freight costs also helped. I must point out that the situation in Iran must be putting them under considerable pressure at the moment, as freight costs and the rand have both moved against them.
Inventory levels are 59% below the prior period’s elevated levels. They’ve done a great job of working through the stockpile, but this puts them at risk of supply disruptions.
In Wild Caught Seafood, the horse mackerel business in Namibia is the highlight. Again, lower fuel costs are a major factor here – and the world has changed dramatically in recent weeks. As a mitigating factor, 70% of the segment’s fuel costs are hedged until the end of the year.
Notably, hake catch volumes were down 8% in this business. The stronger rand has been impacting export revenues, so recent rand weakness should help. Another product worth mentioning is squid, where catch volumes are down 40%.
Moving on to Fishmeal and Fish Oil (Africa), production volumes fell by a nasty 80% for a variety of reasons. Operating losses were higher than in the prior period. Inventory levels are down 74% vs. the prior period.
In Fishmeal and Fish Oil (USA), this period saw just one month of operations during this period under review. Sales volumes were up 7.7% vs. the prior period, but selling prices were much lower – average fish oil prices were down 45%! Along with the strong rand, this put pressure on the financial results. Inventory levels increased 25% in this business.
As usual, there’s plenty of volatility at segmental level. Lucky Star seems to regularly save the day!
PSG Financial Services remains a strong growth story (JSE: KST)
The power of distribution continues to shine through
At PSG Financial Services, they don’t sit around and wait for assets to come to them. The company has a powerful distribution network, which means they are actively growing their asset base all the time.
The benefit of this is clear in the numbers. For the year ended February 2026, the company expects HEPS and recurring HEPS to increase by between 32% and 35%.
If you exclude performance fees, the growth would be 24% to 27%.
These are exceptional numbers, with full results due for release on 16 April.
Thungela has swung into losses (JSE: TGA)
The dividend per share is down by a whopping 69%
If you’re going to buy cyclical stocks with exposure to a single commodity, then you need to be prepared for a rollercoaster ride. Thungela is the perfect example of this phenomenon.
Revenue for the year ended December 2025 fell by 17% vs. the prior year. This led to adjusted EBITDA margin plummeting from 18% to 4.1%. HEPS never really stood a chance, with Thungela now reporting a loss of -R6.47 per share vs. positive HEPS of R25.59 in the prior period.
The dividend per share has dropped from R13.00 to just R4.00.
The cash story isn’t much better, with adjusted operating free cash flow down by 89% to just R396 million. Net cash on the balance sheet has decreased by 42% to R5 billion.
There aren’t many highlights for investors, but credit must go to the company for the metrics that are within its control. For example, saleable production of 13.9Mt was ahead of guidance (12.6Mt to 13.6Mt). In Australia, export saleable production of 4.0Mt was at the upper-end of guidance (3.7Mt to 4.1Mt).
Importantly, the FOB cost per export tonne was better than the guided range in South Africa and Australia.
As a further highlight, Transnet Freight Rail delivered improved rail performance of 56.8Mt, much better than 51.9Mt.
Now if only coal prices would play ball, as there isn’t much that Thungela can do in a period where export coal prices fell by 20% in South Africa and 17% in Australia.
How do you treat Thungela in your portfolio?
Vukile Property Fund is delivering solid results for investors (JSE: VKE)
They are on track to meet guidance
Vukile has certainly been busy in Iberia, with significant asset rotation in Spain. This is to position the portfolio with dominant assets in Spain’s three largest cities. They’ve also been recycling capital in South Africa, where the portfolio is exposed to fast-growing lower-income areas.
In a pre-close update for the year ending March 2026, Vukile has confirmed that they expect to meet guidance of at least 9% growth in both funds from operations (FFO) per share and the dividend per share. This is good news!
In the South African portfolio, they expect like-for-like growth in net operating income of 10.1%. They are enjoying 5.1% growth in trading density, positive reversions of 3.5%, steady vacancies at 1.7% and contractual escalations that look favourable vs. inflation.
The rural and township portfolios have particularly impressive vacancy rates of just 0.4% and 0.8% respectively.
Fascinatingly, bottle stores experienced a 7.1% decline in trading density. Perhaps people really are drinking less these days? Health and Beauty dipped by 3.7%, so it could just be a consumer affordability thing. 11 out of 14 retail categories showed growth in turnover and trading densities.
In Spain and Portugal, the Castellana portfolio enjoyed footfall growth of 3.3% and sales growth of 4.1%. Leading activity is strong and so are the positive reversions.
The loan-to-value as at 31 March 2026 is expected to be around 42% based on their expectations of when transactions will close.
Des de Beer has bought R485k worth of shares in Lighthouse Properties (JSE: LTE). In case you’re new here, I mention him by name because he buys shares in the company so often!
An executive director of Momentum (JSE: MTM) has bought shares worth R355k.
ASP Isotopes (JSE: ISO) has completed the well drilling for Phase 1 of the Renergen helium project four months ahead of schedule. The words “ahead of schedule” will be very foreign to anyone who has prior experience with Renergen! It clearly helps to have access to the balance sheet and expertise at ASP Isotopes. Recent drilling has delivered much better results than in the earlier wells. They now feel confident that they can meet or exceed Phase 1’s nameplate capacity. As an aside, ASP Isotopes points out that Qatar produces between 25% and 33% of the world’s helium. Although Renergen can’t take advantage of a spike in prices at the moment, they can certainly remind investors that there are good geopolitical reasons why South Africa should become a major helium producer.
Zeder (JSE: ZED) announced that circular for the Category 1 disposal of Zaad Holdings is expected to be posted to shareholders on 31 March 2026. For reference, the Firm Intention Announcement was released on 3 February 2026.
After various further acquisitions of shares, AttBid now has 9.42% in RMB Holdings (JSE: RMH). Together with Atterbury Property Fund, this takes the aggregate stake to 42.19%.
Sun International (JSE: SUI) has received approval from the SARB for the special dividend of 100 cents per share. The payment date is 13 April.
Jubilee Metals (JSE: JBL) is putting steps in place to enable the company to pay dividends. This includes reducing the share premium account and increasing the distributable reserves. Perhaps more importantly, investors should also keep an eye on dilution – the company is seeking authority to issue shares and remove pre-emption rights for existing shareholders. A circular has been posted to shareholders.
It may surprise you to learn that Anglo American (JSE: AGL) has a listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange. And since nobody actually knew this, it won’t surprise you to learn that they’ve decided to get rid of that listing. I think being listed in Johannesburg, London and Toronto is quite enough, not to mention the American Depository Receipts planned for New York.
If you’re interested in understanding more about Omnia (JSE: OMN), you could refer to the presentation they delivered at the 9th Annual Avior Corporate Summit. You’ll find the pack here.
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