Anglo American recently announced a blockbuster deal in the form of the proposed merger with Teck Resources to form Anglo Teck. They are trying very hard to convince everyone that this is a merger of equals, even though the numbers tell a different story. Anyway, copper sits at the heart of that strategy, with the latest news from Anglo American reflecting further progress in the underlying copper business.
Anglo American and Codelco have agreed to a joint mine plan for the adjacent copper operations (Los Bronces and Andina respectively) in Chile. This is expected to achieve additional copper production of 120,000 tonnes per year (shared equally), with 15% lower unit costs vs. standalone operations.
They believe that this unlocks a pre-tax net present value of at least $5 billion, shared equally between the firms. It’s important to note that Anglo’s stake in Los Bronces is in a 50.1%-held subsidiary, so Anglo shareholders are basically getting half of half of $5 billion in value uplift – in theory. These gains are all on paper at the moment.
If they get it right, the incremental production gain would take the combined production numbers into the top 5 copper mines globally. Currently, if you just add the mines together without the incremental gain, there’s a top 10 production base to work from.
It’s important to not fall into the trap of actually seeing this as a combined asset, as each company retains its separate ownership and can advance the underground resources as they see fit. This is really just a joint mine plan that hopefully goes well.
Attacq’s recent corporate activity has paid off in the form of much higher earnings (JSE: ATT)
You won’t often see these kind of growth numbers in a property fund
Attacq has released results for the year ended June 2025. Distributable income per share was up 25.6%. It’s possible in a period of heavy dealmaking to see an increase in overall distributable income of that amount (as funds can simply go out there and acquire earnings), but it’s very rare to see it on a per-share basis.
Powering this performance is growth in net operating income of 14.0% (a particularly impressive two-year stack as the prior year was 8.1%), along with the benefit of development activity at Waterfall City and the first full-year impact of deals at Waterfall City with the GEPF and the acquisition of the remaining 20% of Mall of Africa.
It’s easy at times to forget that Attacq has a substantial portfolio outside of Waterfall City. They are focused on dominating the precincts they are invested in, so you won’t find them owning random buildings in an incoherent strategy. Instead, they build out centres of excellence in various places, with Waterfall City as the precinct that they are best known for.
Looking deeper into the portfolio, we find a like-for-like valuation increase of 5%. The retail portfolio was the most impressive at 6.8%. It’s great to see the office portfolio (Attacq calls this the “collaboration hubs”) up 2.3% in value thanks to 6.1% net operating income growth. Its been a long, hard road for office property, as evidenced by this chart:
The fund is in great shape, which enables them to continue with the development strategy (including speculative logistics developments with lumpy effects on occupancy, as is also visible in the chart above).
Guidance for FY26 is for growth in distributable income per share of 7% to 10%, with an 80% dividend payout ratio. The FY25 payout ratio was 80.3%, so the distributable per share growth should be very close to distributable income per share growth.
Ethos Capital flags a significant uptick in NAV (JSE: EPE)
Optasia and the Brait exchangeable bonds have boosted the value
Ethos Capital has released a trading statement for the year ended June 2025. They do things the right way in terms of how they report performance, which means they use net asset value (NAV) per share instead of HEPS like some investment holding companies do. Full results are coming on 25 September, so they’ve also given shareholders more than a week of advance warning of what’s coming. That’s not amazing, but not too bad.
The good news for shareholders is that the net asset value per share is expected to be between R8.45 and R8.60, which means an increase of between 20% and 22% without adjusting for the Brait ordinary shares that were unbundled in July 2024. With that adjustment, the increase is between 28% and 31%.
The main driver of the increase is the value of Optasia (around 50% of group assets as at March 2025), along with positive valuation moves at Vertice, e4 and Primedia in the unlisted portfolio. In the listed space, the Brait exchangeable bonds also increased in value.
Hyprop’s dividend per share growth was just below the double-digit level (JSE: HYP)
And guidance for the coming year is higher
I’m still frustrated with how the Hyprop capital raise for the attempted acquisition of MAS (JSE: MSP) was handled. It probably says more about the cost of debt in South Africa than anything else, with institutional investors happy to throw money at property funds on the off-chance that they do a good deal, with reduction of debt as a palatable plan B. The cost of debt being so close to the cost of equity explains a lot about how hard it is to grow a business in South Africa.
For the year ended June 2025, Hyprop achieved very strong growth of 24% in distributable income in the Eastern European portfolio, along with 11% growth in South Africa. Distributable income was up 7.5%, but distributable income per share was up 2.3%. The per-share number is where you see the effect of the additional shares in issue.
Hyprop had enough flex in its payout ratio to make sure that the dividend per share tells a better story, up 9.9%. We will have to see what they do with the payout ratio in FY26, with guidance for distributable income per share growth of between 10% and 12%. This is on the assumption of interest costs remaining at current levels, so any decrease in global rates should help.
In the South African portfolio, Hyprop tenants enjoyed a 5.5% increase in turnover despite the economic pressure and growth trend in eCommerce (foot count was up just 0.1%). The reversion rate was positive at 4.3%.
In Eastern Europe, turnover growth was even better at 6.6% (in euros) despite a decline in foot count of 0.8%. Reversions were positive 9.1%.
Touching on debt reduction again for a moment, the group loan-to-value (LTV) ratio improved from 36.4% to 33.6%. The average cost of borrowings also reduced. This combination always does wonders for distributable income.
Table Bay Mall, which in my opinion Hyprop overpaid for, has a vacancy rate of 2.1%. That’s higher than Canal Walk (1.4% retail vacancy), Somerset Mall (0.6% vacancy) and CapeGate (0.9% vacancy) as Western Cape peers. The foot count at Table Bay Mall was just 5.6 million over 12 months, which is way off CapeGate at 10 million despite Table Bay Mall having only slightly less GLA. I know the area well and I don’t doubt the long-term growth, but it feels like they paid for all of it upfront.
Libstar might be headed for the exit (JSE: LBR)
And at a time when earnings are finally moving higher
Libstar has had a pretty rough journey as a listed company. That journey might be coming to an end, with the results announcement accompanied by a cautionary regarding non-binding expressions of interest received from parties who are looking at acquiring all the shares in Libstar. If that happens, it would obviously mean a delisting of Libstar. The discussions are at an early stage and there’s no guarantee of an offer coming through (or at what price), but that didn’t stop the market from taking the share price 14.5% higher.
Moving on to the results themselves, Libstar’s performance for the six months to June 2025 reflects a very helpful increase in revenue from continuing operations of 6.7%. This was accompanied by a 90 basis points increase in gross margin to 21.6%. Normalised operating profit came in 16.7% higher and normalised HEPS grew by 15.4%, so things are firmly on the up. This would’ve also supported the share price move.
As for all the normalisation adjustments, this includes what Libstar describes as “non-recurring, non-trading and non-cash items” – and hence a healthy dose of skepticism is a good idea. The great news is that normalised HEPS growth of 15.4% is actually much lower than HEPS growth (without adjustments) of 23.7%, so the normalisation adjustments are telling a more modest story. That’s a much better situation than the other way around.
Libstar only declares final dividends rather than interim dividends, so there’s no dividend at this time.
The outlook is one of a weak consumer market and a need for Libstar to focus on operational efficiencies in its business. They’ve been doing a pretty good job of that lately!
After the latest share price move, here’s what the chart looks like:
Premier Group achieved excellent earnings growth (JSE: PMR)
This is the kind of trading statement that the market loves seeing
Premier Group has released a trading statement for the six months ending 30 September 2025 – yes, they’ve done it before the end of the period! Great as that is, I don’t think the dates of the RMB Morgan Stanley Off Piste conference (17th and 18th September) are a coincidence. This trading statement at least gives management the ability to talk to conference attendees about just how well the business has done, without giving away non-public material price sensitive information.
Premier is achieving mid-single digit revenue growth and is on track to turn that into an increase in HEPS of between 20% and 30%. As leverage goes, that’s exceptional. It also explains why the share price closed 4.4% higher to take the 12-month increase to 57%.
RFG Holdings is battling tough sales conditions (JSE: RFG)
The market seemed to like the update anyway, presumably because of margins
RFG Holdings released a trading update for the 11 months to August. This is essentially a pre-close update by another name. The share price closed 7% higher in response, despite some clear challenges being faced by the business.
Revenue was up just 2.4% for the 11 months, which is even slower than the 3.5% growth in the interim period. A deceleration in revenue off a low base is concerning. Management has stated that they “remain committed” to achieving the operating profit margin target of 10%, although the announcement isn’t explicit on by when. The interim profit margin was 8.5%.
The deceleration in revenue is actually worse than it looks, with RFG noting that July and August showed particularly weak trading in South Africa. The regional segment (local sales) has been the only thing keeping RFG in the green, as the international segment has been experiencing a drop in revenue due to an oversupply of deciduous fruit products and now the uncertainty on tariffs as well.
For the 11 months, revenue in the regional segment was up 5.1% and the international segment was down 8.4%. This compares to interim growth of 7.6% and -17.2% respectively, so the international business actually clawed back lost ground in recent months while the regional segment slowed down even more.
It’s a tough business with exposure to numerous external factors, with the share price down 23% year-to-date and up 4.3% over 12 months.
Nibbles:
Director dealings:
A senior executive at Quilter (JSE: QLT) has sold shares worth around R5.7 million.
An independent non-executive director at STADIO (JSE: SDO) bought shares worth R40.6k.
Nampak (JSE: NPK) needs to find a new buyer for Nampak Zimbabwe. The disposal of its 51.43% stake in Nampak Zimbabwe for up to $25 million to TSL Limited has fallen through despite a successful due diligence and competition authority approval process. TSL has elected to withdraw from the deal for strategic reasons and Nampak has agreed to this. Nampak remains committed to an exit from this asset.
Visual International Holdings (JSE: VIS) announced that Serowe Industries has submitted a non-binding offer to acquire up to 34.9% of the issued shares in the company via a subscription for equity of R60 million. The 34.9% shareholding is just enough not to trigger a mandatory offer to all shareholders (35% is the threshold for that). Serowe has an exclusivity period of 40 business days for the due diligence. In that period, Visual can’t negotiate with anyone else regarding equity, other than for a R2 million bookbuild that will be executed during that period (and in which Serowe will be invited to participate). Visual’s current market cap is R44 million. The pre-money valuation implied in this process is R112 million, which you calculate as R60 million / 34.9% = R172 million post-money valuation. Take off the R60 million in new equity and you get to R112 million pre-money, or 2.5x the current market cap! It’s little wonder that the share price doubled on the day on exceptionally strong volumes (by Visual’s standards, as this is a highly illiquid stock).
MAS (JSE: MSP) – the company that dominated headlines for a few weeks as you may recall – has announced that four new independent non-executive directors have been appointed, along with a non-executive director (not of the independent variety) in the form of Martin Slabbert of Prime Kapital. Dewald Joubert, Nevenka Pergar, George Mucibabici and Yovav Carmi are the four independents who will join the board. Notably, the current independent chairman (Werner Alberts), lead independent non-executive director (Claudia Pendred) and chair of the audit and risk committee (Vasile Iuga) have all tendered their resignations with immediate effect. The replacement chairman hasn’t been announced yet and neither have the reconstituted committees. You won’t often see wholesale changes to a board like this, but then again you don’t usually see corporate activity like we saw at MAS.
If you wondered whether Truworths (JSE: TRU) CEO Michael Mark is finally headed for retirement, then the latest announcement of share awards at the company should put those worries / hopes (depending on your view) to rest. The performance shares are worth R16.5 million and the vesting profile is such that they all vest in year 3 (subject to performance conditions).
Southern Palladium (JSE: SDL) is presenting at the Resources Rising Stars Gold Coast Investor Conference this week. They’ve made the presentation available, with slides ranging from an overview of the PGM supply-demand expectations through to the optimised prefeasibility study at Bengwenyama. You’ll find the presentation here.
Note: Ghost Bites is my journal of each day’s news on SENS. It reflects my own opinions and analysis and should only be one part of your research process. Nothing you read here is financial advice. E&OE.Disclaimer.
With a background in law and economics, Obaratile (OB) Semenya’s approach to property includes exposure at practically every part of the value chain.
From developing high-end residential projects through Legaro Property Development to driving sales at his real estate agency, Natural Property, he’s mastered the full property journey.
And with extensive experience working closely with Balwin, OB also knows his way around the biggest developments around.
On episode 3 of The Finance Ghost Plugged in with Capitec, he talks about building the world he wants to see around him, all while ‘nerding out’ on the business and sector he loves most.
Episode 3 covers:
The risks and rewards of the property sector
Lessons from working across the full value chain
Insights from balancing development and real estate sales
Why passion for what you do often makes the rest fall into place
The Finance Ghost plugged in with Capitec is made possible by the support of Capitec Business. All the entrepreneurs featured on this podcast are clients of Capitec. Capitec is an authorised Financial Services Provider, FSP number 46669.
Listen to the podcast here:
Read the transcript:
Intro: From side hustles to success stories, this is The Finance Ghost plugged in with Capitec, where we explore what it really takes to build a business in South Africa. This podcast features Obaratile Semenya, a property entrepreneur with experience across the value chain from sales to development.
The Finance Ghost: Welcome to this episode of The Finance Ghost plugged in with Capitec. This is a wonderful podcast series in which I get to speak to some really interesting entrepreneurs. I get to dig into their backstory. I get to understand more about what they’ve built and why they are still building it. And of course, we get to learn along the way, which is something that I really enjoy because entrepreneurs are such inspiring and interesting people. And of course, my thanks to Capitec Business for making this possible.
And on this episode, I am grateful to be able to speak to OB Semenya. OB is a property entrepreneur. This man has got a lot of things going on. I’m not sure how he remembers which business to work on, on which day! The fact that he’s wearing a branded hoodie of one of the businesses tells me that maybe he just matches his outfit to what he’s working on that day. I guess we’ll find out shortly. OB, thank you so much for doing this podcast with me. You’ve got so much to share about the world of property, and I’m really looking forward to digging in with you.
Obaratile Semenya: It is an absolute honour. Thank you, Ghost, for the invitation. I appreciate it. I just hope that I can rise to the occasion for you.
The Finance Ghost: So spill the beans. Does that sweater that you’re wearing there, that hoodie, does that remind you what you need to work on today? It feels like you’re wearing your diary on your chest, basically.
Obaratile Semenya: Sort of! You’re not wrong. Today is very much a real estate day. There’s a sale that was closing this morning, so that’s the hoodie that we’re wearing today, but it will change late in the day meeting. So, yeah, not wrong.
The Finance Ghost: I love that. The life of an entrepreneur with a finger in many pies. And we’ll obviously dig into that, definitely.
But I think before we do, let’s just understand more about the backdrop of what got you into property, when this started for you, because it’s really interesting to understand the background of entrepreneurs and what gets them to the point they’ve gotten to today. I mean, in the last episode of this podcast series, which I would encourage listeners to go check out, I got to speak to Rabia Ghoor and she started swiitchbeauty when she was 14, dropped out of high school two years later, and 10 years after that she’s sitting with this wonderful eCommerce business.
So was property an early thing for you, OB? Was this something where even in school you were interested in it, or was it something that happened later? Because what’s fascinating with property is I find when I meet people who are property people, that really is what they are, right? Their whole career kind of sits in property because it’s such an interesting and specialist space. It’s not like, oh, you know, today I work in retail and then tomorrow I go and work in a different kind of client-facing business. People flit around other sectors a lot in their careers, but it feels like once you’re in the property stream, you’re in it. Has that been your experience?
Obaratile Semenya: So I think you’re not wrong. The more my journey into property develops, the more I find that to be a very common theme among people who if property is what they do, property is what they love, property is what they eat. Because of, I guess, the all-encompassing nature of the industry.
For me, actually, I wish I could say it’s the same, but it’s really not. I never even considered myself a property person per se. If I had to think about when my journey into property started, it started way before I was in school. My perspective even today about property mostly comes from my reality. I mean, I was born, geez, I don’t want to give myself away here, but I was born, what, 1990. So, I was born on the cusp of understanding the notion of property. The first home I can remember is one that I remember my dad buying in Kelvin with a CC, right. And him constantly reiterating to me how ridiculous it is that we live where we live. Because he’s a dad, right?
But my understanding of property has just been infused throughout my life as a discussion about, well, what does this country now look like? And I think that’s partly because of when I was born, but also because I come from a family of lawyers. So my property understanding actually comes from the law. And I only find myself being a property person later in my life, but it definitely is my passion.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, that’s incredibly interesting. And obviously it talks to the history of South Africa and how property has been a really hard thing for a lot of people historically. And obviously we live in a very different country now and thank goodness for that. And as you say, born 1990 – that was right on the cusp of – I love the way you put it, where property starts to become a concept you can actually attach to. It’s actually such an incredible way to describe it really.
And interesting as well that you’ve come at it from a legal angle as opposed to more of a finance angle. I’ve got to say, some of the best people I worked with in my corporate finance career were attorneys by profession. Lawyers are very capable of great dealmaking, definitely. And it’s just interesting to see that, really.
So I think let’s get a lay of the land, of what it is that you’ve built, because if you need to, as I said, change your clothing based on which business it is that day, then there’s clearly a lot going on there. And I know from the discussions we had as the build up to the show, you do have your finger in very many pies in the property game and also at different points in the value chain, which makes this extra interesting.
We will obviously talk through some of the more detailed projects in the development space, etc. But I think just give us the sort of elevator pitch of OB the property entrepreneur. What do you have in the stable?
Obaratile Semenya: So me today, now, as you rightly point out, I’ve always been a generalist. I just enjoy property as a sector. So that’s reflected in the things that I own. It’s not for financial reasons primarily. It’s mostly because I’m fascinated about where property intersects with people’s lives. The hoodie that I’m wearing now would be one of the first places that I engage, which is Natural Property, which is a real estate agency that I own with my partner, Slade Brooks. It is nothing but a real estate agency.
It’s one that we built three years ago – actually turned three, two weeks ago. Natural Property does nothing but sell. It’s an agency. But the depth – the depth and intricacies of what it takes to run a real estate agency, property is a really deceiving industry because it’s accessible, but it’s also ridiculously inaccessible if you actually try to do anything more than sell or buy.
So that’s the first pie I would say, is that I own Natural Property, which is a real estate agency that’s doing very, very well. It is the primary seller for Legaro as a developer as well as does a lot of Balwin sales and it does a lot of private sales. That’s one of the pies.
The others would be the developers. That’s what takes up a lot of time. And Legaro is a big part of my life. It’s a private property developer. We do largely estates, homes and we did do a little bit of commercial, but we stick to residential in Gauteng, Joburg and the Western Cape. Our largest developments are now in Hyde Park and in Paarl. So that takes up a lot of my time because it’s a private company, it’s a small team of passionate people and what we try to do is large developments with too little people, if you ask me, but passion makes up the difference. That would be one other place that I find myself.
And then Balwin, which is a different kind of animal, takes up the rest. Those are the three big pies that I find myself engaging with on the day to day. But I do own a lot of smaller businesses, but they’re all nonetheless related to property.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, it’s really interesting. So there’s some involvement there in what is essentially a listed company in the form of Balwin, which is a great big throughput machine of residential properties. You’ve got Natural Property there, which is, as you say, a sort of vanilla real estate agency, which is actually kind of cool. And I want to talk about that a bit more. And then Legaro, which is your property developments, primarily residential, some really high-end stuff, which is very cool.
So something I wanted to ask you about Natural Property and you made that great comment there where it’s almost talking it down a bit to say, well, it’s just an estate agency, but of course there’s a really interesting concept here and I think entrepreneurs, they almost kill themselves trying to think through what makes my business incredibly unique or incredibly different. Like what is that key differentiator? Sometimes I feel like just great execution is a differentiator. And that’s something that I wanted to ask you because an estate agency, a real estate agency in and of itself is not a unique business model, as you said, but if you do it to a very high standard, you can still build yourself a really great business. Not everything has to be this ultra innovative, unique play. So is that part of what you focus on in that space is to just do everything really well and then make sure you’re competing adequately in that market?
Obaratile Semenya: So that’s actually a very good point. And what I like about an estate agency, it’s one of those weird businesses in which there isn’t a correct answer. I’m blessed enough to know a bunch of people in a bunch of sectors and property and real estate is one of them.
There are people, for instance, like Jonathan Tagg, who is one of Pam Golding’s primary sellers and he operates out of Mauritius – a very good friend of mine who would be adamant about why would you start your own real estate agency, OB? And he raises great points in that it’s one of those industries you can do by yourself. You can be a sole proprietor, you can be an estate agent, you can go and get a license and you can legally sell the same properties that an agency could. And on the other side of that scale, you can go and build an entire agency, have the overheads, the infrastructure, the expenses, the costs, the human resources management, and find yourself backwards to a sole proprietor.
It really lends itself to: what is it that you’re trying to do? If you don’t actually have a very specific goal that I would suggest is catered towards your niche, where do you have value-add? As you pointed out, an agency is a meaningless term without that because there’s just too many properties and too much competition for you to just do a vanilla agency without it being hyper-focused on what it is that you have an advantage in.
Natural Property is just that. We were the developer. I was the developer and I felt that I will go through this slog of creating an agency in order to claw back the 4% or 5% that we might have been giving away to other agencies. I clearly don’t care about my time, but I had an advantage. It’s not just an agency.
The Finance Ghost: Sorry, I’m laughing because not caring about your time is just such a great point. I feel like most entrepreneurs suffer from this overarching affliction. How many years have you been at this for actually, in terms of being this busy would you say? Like specifically this busy?
Obaratile Semenya: So it’s interesting because my entire life is about the law. This is what’s interesting. It’s not about property. But my father, who’s somebody who I actually credit a lot of my decisions to, not because he wanted me to get into property, but because he’s always – the nature of what he did, is an advocate. And my father was chairman of the Johannesburg Bar Council for a very long time and was also very instrumental in our property and constitutional clauses and how our property regime works in a democratic dispensation.
Every dinner was an inescapable conversation for me because I’m “his boy” in a sense. And my dad has always been passionate about rights. Given his history and given our history and how that relates to your lived experience. So how I got into property per se was me abandoning becoming an advocate, right? Which, much to my dad’s chagrin, that’s something I would say, eleven years ago – oh no, I was dead to him. We get along great now. But his dad was a lawyer. My dad is a lawyer, my sister’s a lawyer. Everybody around me are very experienced advocates. So I’ve only ever been in property conversations that were from a legal perspective.
It’s only when I started the journey of Natural Property, sitting with the developers and abandoning the law and clearly my time, that property properly started for me. But I’ve always been in property. I can’t describe to you – pretty much my entire life and that I credit to my dad.
The Finance Ghost: Your dad sounds like a champ. Very, very cool person to be able to learn from and then disappoint for a short while and then impress later on in life. That does feel like the father-son story arc actually for so many!
But well done. It is a very cool story and it’s interesting you talk about abandoning your time because the incredible irony of this is that property is actually one of those sectors where you can build a business that is independent from you, which is something that entrepreneurs struggle with tremendously. Much as it’s abandoning your time, the truth of it is that advocates sell time quite literally, whereas actually what you sell over time is (1) you’re building an agency which exists without you – I mean, you’re not even on the website, I know because I’ve looked – and (2) property developments, where those properties literally last forever.
That’s kind of the brand promise, right? Is that these things have lasting value. You sell them, it’s done, you move on to the next one. It’s very different to my world, my business relies 100% on me, literally me, so I’m in this boat where I’ve also given up my time terribly. But it’s not ever going to actually get better and I don’t really mind because I absolutely love what I do, so it’s fine. But I think with you it’s, yeah, it’s not quite a time treadmill.
It’s just an interesting dynamic of “I’m not an advocate, I gave up my time” – I almost feel like long-term it’s going to be the other way around. You’re not billing by the hour.
Obaratile Semenya: That’s true. I’m not billing by the hour. That actually frames just so much of how you think. I don’t think one is better than the other. I just think that those are two completely different ways of thinking about the exercise of industry. And because, like I say, I come from a family of professionals. My mother’s a chartered accountant, my father’s an advocate. By nature of their success, they did well, and so by extension, they own – but what they own has never been itself a business.
So by just that structural dynamic by itself, I ended up becoming somebody who concerns himself more with, okay, well, now what do we now do with property? Which you’d be surprised how much your viewpoints about that is informed by how it is that you make your money in the first place.
My dad and I probably still couldn’t agree about a patio, let alone a building, but I don’t think it’s because we don’t like each other or we don’t get along. It’s I genuinely think a mindset thing in which I think they’re both important. He’s good at what he does and he earns a lot for what he does. I like to be the person in the background. I don’t like being the face of anything. And I like to build businesses that are able to work without me. My time’s not something I would like to sell. I like to use as much of it as possible to do what I love, which is property.
The Finance Ghost: Makes perfect sense. Kudos to your mom, fellow CA. There are too many accountants and lawyers on this podcast and in your immediate vicinity, I think. But it’s cool, it’s amazing to have those influences around you in your early life. Later on, it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes, the influences we have around us. Both previous guests on this podcast series, very similar story in terms of how early influence makes a huge difference on what they do later in life.
I don’t know if you have kids, but I do and I take a lot of that on board. I think to myself, what experiences do I need to give them early in life to try and just expose them to these things and figure out what they’re good at and everything else? It’s amazing to see the difference that makes later on. I think to the parents listening to this podcast, you’re not overthinking your kids. The desire to try and give them all this exposure really makes a difference later on.
Obaratile Semenya: Absolutely. And I think the difference between my father and I iterates that more than anything. I knew that I was passionate about development and property where the first time I watched my dad build a home – now, my dad was, what, born in ‘59. My dad is a very important person and I’m not trying to say that to flatter him, but I say it more to say it’s always been fascinating to me that, well, if this is his experience, imagine what an ordinary South African experience is like.
And watching him build a home was the most fascinating experience I could see. His younger brother is a civil engineer who got his qualification from P.W. Botha allowing him to go to Wits because he was the top student. I watched these two men fumble their way into building a home, they had no one to ask and so I’ve always been acutely aware of the privilege that I’m exposed to. I primarily gotten to go to good schools in which I could just ask Russell’s dad or Dennis or – I was never too far away from somebody who was in some way related to the built environment, which is just something I can’t be grateful enough for. Because watching my father, as talented as he is, also exposed me to the notion of okay, actually, where would this guy get a quantity surveyor? It’s a very good point.
The Finance Ghost: I love that.
Obaratile Semenya: I truly see property as like a calling for me rather than a passion. I don’t see it as a business. I see it as, wow, I’m actually just really lucky that I get to be exposed to information, knowledge, and education that my parents would never have been able to.
The Finance Ghost: Would you say that financial success almost becomes the by-product of that journey? Because again, I think it’s pretty consistent across successful entrepreneurs is you’re going to be spending so much time on this thing and taking so much risk on it and dedicating such a big chunk of your life to it – you have to be passionate about it. It cannot just be a job that makes you money. It obviously needs to make money, because otherwise something’s wrong and you can’t pay for basic life expenses with something you’re passionate about all the time, unfortunately, if you’re really lucky then you can.
But do you find that money kind of just comes with doing something really well and then learning where that niche is and the economics kind of fall into place? Or do you feel like within the property sector, you actually picked out places where it looked as though there was definitely money to be made?
Obaratile Semenya: If I’m being honest, money was not the motivating factor for me. And I’m not trying to sound humble. It definitely is a by-product. But property is an arduous long trek. For a lot of people, I think it would take you – it would be shorter for you to be a doctor than to try to be a developer, right? And I don’t say that to discourage people. I say that so that you plan your life around that kind of journey. I don’t have kids, for instance. I’m not married. And I’d say that’s a deliberate consequence of my decision to be in property. I can’t see how I would have done that. I can do that and I hope to do that now.
Definitely, I think you’re right when we say things like that – financial success is something that I wouldn’t expect or put as a pressure on myself, but must be ever-present on that journey and understanding. I think of property like trying to be a doctor. I think when people are near residency, they don’t say, oh, I’ve wasted my time. As long as you’re just deliberate about understanding that you’re trying to do something that by its nature, buildings take 10 years to go up. You can’t expect in less time than that to be good at them.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we haven’t talked much about the development side yet, and maybe that’s a good opportunity to just jump into some of those points. And one of the words you used earlier, because I wrote it down while you were talking, was “inaccessible” – and I would imagine that at least part of that is probably just access to balance sheet, because from a property development perspective, that’s quite a thing.
But what do you find it is about South Africa at the moment, where property development is still a relatively inaccessible game?
Obaratile Semenya: So he might be upset – no, he won’t be – if I bring up his name here. But Steve Brooks is such an important person to me and in my personal journey and in my life because his approach to development in the climate that we live in is, if he was anybody else, insane, right? But such is his devotion to both the country and his craft that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to engage in development at its absurd level. Even at the smaller level, you’re correct – balance sheet, balance sheet, balance sheet. But while a balance sheet might allow you to get to do something, it really, I think, beguiles people – well, if you have credit, you can go and develop. And I think that’s why it’s such an emphasis on that first half is because it’s one of those industries you can literally go bust on a single development after having worked so diligently, consistently, methodically and cautiously your whole life.
So the balance sheet is necessary to get there. But I think knowing when and what to strike on is way more important because property is just not one of those things you can just, oh, well, I made a mistake. We’ll just recover here. It’s really something – you want to rather spend your time at smaller scale, understanding your skills, your expertise, resources before you worry about when you get that balance sheet. You don’t want to get it too early. You don’t want to get help too early before you understand what you’re doing.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, absolutely. And for those who maybe don’t know the name Stephen Brooks, if you go and do some googling of Balwin and who has built that business, then you will find that answer.
And I think that’s great. I mean, it’s fantastic to have access to, I suppose, not just a mentor, but also a partner who can help you kind of break into these things. And you’ve also referenced some of the risks there, which are really valid. And it’s one of the things I wanted to ask you. I feel like on the risk-reward spectrum, property development is about as far along the risk spectrum as just about anything. You are literally only as good as your last project. As you say, if something goes wrong, if the stuff doesn’t sell. I guess if you had some kind of big construction issue, if there’s an issue with the properties after the fact, I mean, there’s so much that can go wrong. It reminds me, I’m going to age myself now – and you’ve only got two years, you’re two years younger than me – but I always think of that, remember that 50 Cent album? Get Rich or Die Tryin’? I always think the name of that album – I feel like there are sectors that are very much the 50 Cent sector, it is Get Rich or Die Tryin’. Because it’s this binary outcome – you either do really well or something goes really wrong. Would you say that’s a fair statement about development?
Obaratile Semenya: It’s a very, very fair statement. And I think while Steve is by no means the only developer in the town, I think the types of development he does gives the most fast-tracked insight into the absurdity of how developments can go, particularly in a developing country. I mean, as Balwin, we found ourselves often going all the way into doing the municipal work right, way outside the scope of when you planned. Because when you decide you’re going to do something, it’s five years before you’ve put bricks down, and possibly nine, ten years before you have something to sell. The economy has born and reborn twice in that period. So it’s something that you, I think you have to have kind of like a feel for. And so access to the kinds of people who’ve done that is priceless. I think more than balance sheet, more than balance sheet – I think that’s what’s important is exposing yourself to developments that have happened.
And luckily, we live in an era where you can Lightstone, you can CMA, you can do your homework. There is absolutely no excuse not to understand the trends, the patterns, the costs. We’re very lucky to live in an information age, and there are a few people who have done the noble work of risking themselves to the stars for the rest of us to kind of understand or what’s plausible in this country.
Would I do that? Okay, maybe I would, but I think it’s not something that’s for everybody. Nor do I want people to think that you have to be an insane person to try to be a developer. It’s a spectrum. But all of them are risky. Absolutely. All of them. I think anyone who’s built a home will tell you.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, absolutely, to your point, the balance sheet is just one ingredient, right? If that’s all it took, then all you would have is a situation where the richest people in South Africa would be the best developers and there would be nothing else. So obviously that’s not true. It’s only one part of the equation.
You are obviously quite a natural risk taker. And is it – interestingly enough, is it only in your commercial life, does that get you the full kick or are you like riding jet skis on every Saturday and bungee jumping on Sundays?
Obaratile Semenya: I’m a risk taker, but I taught economics at the University of Cape Town, and I was telling – I was actually, my degree was an economics and law, and at some point I taught the PDPA class at the graduate school. So I don’t want to sound like I’m a property person who just has an adrenaline rush for nearly going broke, more that I feel that it’s important that I take risks, because while I might be a risk taker, and here is my opinion, I find my people, black people, which is where my framework comes from, and understandably so, to be almost absurdly cautious, right? And I understand, I completely understand. It’s built into cultural norms. You see, even the notion of private property is foreign to most black people in this country. That’s not – that idea still blows my dad’s mind that someone can own land, right?
So that conservatism can be lethal in and of itself. So while, yes, I am very – I don’t actually take risks, I genuinely don’t think I take risks. I don’t put large amounts of capital down into projects on the hope that people will buy it. But I am a massive risk taker in that I believe in the stability of a property market anchoring an economy. So most of the things that I do, I do behind the backs of elephants that allow me to stay safe. That’s why I keep reiterating that I feel very grateful for the kinds of people who – I’d say it’s like launching rockets. There are some people who are like, well, okay, I don’t mind losing six on the way so that everybody else can learn how to tweak a booster. That’s how I see the Stephen Brooks, the people who are willing to constantly risk their personal fortune in order to play the game. But I personally don’t have an adrenaline rush about it.
I have an appreciation for how acutely lucky I am to get to participate in something that I have no business affording. Anyone who looks like me has no business affording. I might have done well for myself now, but without the banks and those sorts of people, the economy would grind in terms of the property sector.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, yeah. It’s legacy balance sheets, the amount of money you actually need to be able to do the really big property stuff is big, big, big, big, big balance sheets. And obviously for many decades that was simply just not possible to build in South Africa for groups of people and thankfully now it’s changed. It’s great – I enjoyed the – whenever you speak to entrepreneurs about risk and people think that entrepreneurs are these crazy maverick risk takers because they’ve gone and read one Richard Branson book or they’ve seen a video and they kind of ascribe these one or two really niche case entrepreneurs who look like they basically just rolled the dice and just rolled a six every day for 30 years and there are one or two people who have done that. But actually good entrepreneurs are not necessarily people who get a kick from risk. They just understand how to take risk and they understand where the safety nets are.
And, again, if I refer back to the last couple of podcasts that I’ve done in this series, they were young entrepreneurs. So both Makomborero Mutezo, who did TheHungryMute, and then Rabia Ghoor who did swiitchbeauty, both started young and that helps a lot, definitely, in terms of the amount of risk you can take. Rabia made this great comment about someone in her family who said if you’re going to play with a bomb, take it outside. Which I thought was such a great analogy because – don’t go and blow up the house you’re in, don’t go blow up the thing that’s looking after you. Go take the risk and then do it in a safe way and that’s entrepreneurship. One of the books that I always recommend to people is to go and read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight because he worked as an accountant while he was getting Nike off the ground. It wasn’t just cool, let me quit my job and then see what happens next month.
And I often have friends who will say to me: “I’m thinking of leaving corporate and I’ve got this idea” and I’m like, no, whoa, let’s just stop right there. There’s no thinking of leaving corporate and I kind of have an idea. Do it as a side hustle for nine months first and see that this is the life you want. And then maybe, just maybe, you then need to think about taking a risk on it. So, yeah, it’s – the point is risk is not the goal because otherwise you are going to blow yourself up. It’s going to happen. Then you’re not taking risk for the right reasons, right?
Obaratile Semenya: Absolutely. So I would equate property development to farming. I look at farmers and I think they’re insane. To dedicate that much land to sometimes a single crop is objectively, from the outside, an absurd thing to do, right? You’re literally praying upon the gods to favour you a year in advance.
The Finance Ghost: I think there’s a reason why religion tends to be strong in rural communities. I think that’s exactly why.
Obaratile Semenya: I think that’s why! I still drive on farms and I get shivers because I just go, oh, please don’t go wrong, right? But I think a farmer would say: I know corn. I might not understand everything else, but one thing I know is corn. And if people can start to think of property like that, rather than look at it as though it’s one thing, it’s not – there are just so many tranches, subgroups, categories, classes in property that nobody can be that – even someone like Steve Brooks is particularly good at the particular products that he particularly builds. And disciplined people stick to that, right? They don’t take wild, irresponsible risk and blow up the home. So similarly, I don’t think a corn farmer is going to wake up tomorrow and say, you know, beetroot looks nice. I don’t think you do that.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, let’s do grapes. Let’s do grapes. Exactly. That’s such a great point.
Obaratile Semenya: Yeah. So it might look from the outside like an insane thing to do. If you properly go into those people who are successful, you’ll realize that they’re conservative too. They’re just hyper-confident in what they know. And if you step them outside of that, they’re any other person. So I don’t want people to feel like this, this industry is inaccessible. It just looks that way.
But you find your niche, find what it is that you’re passionate about and that you would nerd out on, and you’ll see that the risk is really a lack of information, a lot of it. Most of it can be mitigated with just knowledge.
The Finance Ghost: I love the nerd out point. So that’s exactly what it is, right, when you have your own business. You need to be willing to nerd out on whatever it is you do, because you’re going to have to be the best at it of anyone you know. That’s what you’ve got to aim for. That’s the amazing thing with business – sportspeople get all of the fame and all of the glory because they are one of the 10 best people in the country at a certain thing, or 15 best or 20 best or whatever it is. It doesn’t matter. But actually, if you’re going to make it big in a specific sector, there’s a really good chance that you’re going to be one of the 10 or 20 best in the country at a specific niche. And to make it really big, you’re going to need to be one of the top five. It’s just that niche isn’t on TV and we don’t all wear jerseys of that person’s job. But that’s what’s required if you really want to make it big. You’re going to have to nerd out to that level where you chase actual greatness, right?
Obaratile Semenya: Absolutely.
The Finance Ghost: So I think, while we’ve still got time, let’s maybe move on to one of the things we did talk about, which is to say that whilst the balance sheet might not be the only thing you need to make this work, it is obviously one of the ingredients. And at the end of the day, this podcast is made possible by Capitec and that’s because Legaro, at least as I understand it, is a Capitec Business client.
What I really want to ask you is the high-level question, which is from a debt perspective, whether from Capitec or elsewhere, that is a very important ingredient in property, especially because the thing about the property sector is that debt is used all the time to juice up those returns. And that is certainly true whether it’s a Real Estate Investment Trust – you go and look on the JSE and it’s a structure that’s built for renting out property, they use tons of debt, the loan-to-value ratios there are a key part of the analysis.
In the property development space, I can imagine the debt is even scarier in some respects because there you don’t have such certainty on your cash flows. If you’ve got a huge portfolio of 100 properties that you’re renting out, you kind of know that you’re going to get this much rent every month. And so the bank and you can feel quite good about how that debt works. In the development game, you’ve got to have a really close relationship with your bank because you need them to understand the risks and you need to structure stuff accordingly.
So what do you find works well in terms of know what makes a good banking partner, specifically in the development side of the property sector?
Obaratile Semenya: Absolutely. And this is again when we go back to that statement that you made that the balance sheet isn’t everything. When it comes to development, unlike you trying to buy your house, the bank truly is your partner, right?
So more importantly than getting access to the capital, you really want to have a banking partner and this is why Capitec have been so fantastic for Legaro. You really want a banking partner that understands what you’re trying to do, that you’re not just a simple number, which Capitec are fantastic at doing, that understands development itself rather than just being financiers. Because you are going to go through bumps, you are going to go through unexpected shortfalls, you don’t have control of a lot of those variables. And what you don’t want from your banking partner is somebody who’s skittish or actually ill-informed about, well, what does this particular moment look like in the scale of the broader property market? What does it look like in terms of the time of the year? It’s June, relax, for instance. If you don’t have a banking partner that understands development itself, which we’re very lucky to have Capitec, you’re going to struggle because you’re going to find yourself at odds for reasons that actually objectively aren’t really problems. So that’s why it’s invaluable to have somebody who understands that.
But then on top of that, you are correct – at the end of the day, it’s their money. Developments are just way too expensive for individuals to finance. It’s just not going to happen. Ideally, you would structure your developments well. You would make sure that, for instance, you have some control of the land, that you’re able to put in enough that you can at least hold the land cost yourself. There’s good hygiene that you can do to mitigate against the risk, but nothing will help you escape that you do need a good credit partner. And that’s where the banks are really the engine of the property market. And we’re really grateful for them.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, it’s that old banking joke that I loved from my investment banking days: OPM, Other People’s Money, and the fact that OPM sounds a bit like opium, I think is just a nice coincidence, I’m sure, in the world of banking.
But yeah, it’s an important concept, which is that you’ve got people who are capital providers in the markets and then you’ve got people who are risk takers and who can go and generate a great return on that capital both for themselves and the capital provider. That is capitalism 101, right? That’s how it works. That’s how free markets work. That’s why we can all go and invest in almost whatever we like, really, with variable outcomes. And it’s a very important and wonderful ecosystem. And it’s what develops our economy at the end of the day – we need more of it, not less of it.
Obaratile Semenya: Absolutely, absolutely. And with the housing shortfall that we have in this country, we just – I’m really grateful for banks like Capitec who are proactive about helping developers, particularly in things like that we do like which are high-density developments, tackle that problem because it’s expensive. And I don’t take that for granted that they are putting their necks on the line every time they believe in us.
And it really is a partnership, it’s not simply a transaction. And so there are some just fantastic people at Capital, from the marketing team all the way through to credit, all the way to accounts, they really will listen to you. And it’s not just because you owe them. Trust me, they’ll let you know that you owe them, but they’re really there to help you.
The Finance Ghost: Yeah, it really is great. So maybe let’s start to bring it home then with talking about the current projects keeping you busy. If someone wants to see a good example of a Legaro project, maybe they’d like to come and buy a property from you, talk us through current on-the-go projects. What’s keeping you busy at Legaro? What are they called? Where can people find out more?
Obaratile Semenya: So today. Well, on this podcast, I’m at home right now and I live in a Legaro development. So if that’s putting your money where your mouth is, I hope that says that. Currently Legaro is focused on two large developments. One is in Joburg here in Hyde Park. It’s The Emerald. We sell one, two and three bedrooms and now penthouses. They’re sectional titles in a fantastic area. It is upmarket, but they rent incredibly well.
And this entire development has been powered by Capitec through and through. We’re about 185 units into this development, which is well past halfway.
The Finance Ghost: I can see the learnings from Balwin coming through – if there’s one Steve Brooks instilled in you, it’s a willingness to take on big projects!
Obaratile Semenya: Yeah, yeah. And at this point he’s more my dad than my mentor! And I don’t want to again downplay how incredibly lucky I am to get to be in these developments. And that’s why I live there. But yeah, that’s our Joburg development. It’s largely where I’m at most of the time. It’s a fantastic ecosystem in a great area. And I’m glad that areas like this are starting to have accessibility for people who otherwise would have absolutely no chance of living anywhere here. Like I said, we have one bedrooms, two bedrooms, three bedrooms and penthouses. In fact, we just sold a penthouse last week.
And then the big monster that Legaro is tackling is the Western Cape, Paarl. We are building a development there called Drakenzicht, again with Capitec. The first phase has already been sold out. It’s on phase 2 of Drakenzicht 1. There will be a retail centre there. It’s there in the valley by Val der Vie. And it’s absolutely gorgeous. Yeah, it is upmarket but what I love about Legaro is that it’s able to piggyback off I think a lot of the school fees that Balwin would have had to have learned over its nearly 30 years.
Being able to use those relationships to do it at – it’s big, but compared to Balwin, at a smaller scale, and really provide a really premium product at a competitive price, what you’re getting. And that’s the benefit of having the experience of the likes of Balwin in building this journey.
But at Legaro, we have a financial director, managing director, the agents and I’m there. And so really it’s individuals who put in the time and effort to apply that into those developments. But those are our two current developments.
We do have another development coming up in the Hyde Park area, which is Hyde Park Square, which is set to launch next year. But we’re trying to focus on residential. We’re tapering off a little bit of the commercial portfolio that we had. But what we do is we sell really good-looking homes and I’d love for people to come and look at them, thanks to Capitec. Really good-looking homes that thanks to density and price point are in good areas where people can realistically afford them.
The Finance Ghost: That’s what I wanted to say. So I’ve been looking now at The Emerald Hyde Park website here on my other screen, obviously, because I also actually really like property for what it’s worth. I don’t think I’d ever be an investor in it, I’ve got to tell you. But I think your environment around you will dictate your mood, the way you live your life, to a gigantic extent, it really will. So property is great. But if I look at your Emerald website, I mean it’s fascinating, right? So the one bed, one baths from just over R2 million, like R2.1 million. And then that penthouse was like R11 million.
It just shows how in one space you’ve built such an interesting development where there’s an accessible layer for young Joburg professionals or whatever the case may be. This reminds me a little bit of my old life in Joburg. It’s very cool. Maybe that’s why I like it. And then you’ve got those penthouses which by all accounts that’s a seriously big number for what is a really beautiful property for that Joburg lifestyle and kind of all in one place as this integrated living environment. So yeah, very cool. It’s really nice to see stuff like that.
Obaratile Semenya: It is, and like I said, it accommodates almost everybody, from families to individuals. And it allows an accessibility to happen that I say would have been impossible. I mean, I’m walking distance from the President, which is something that I don’t take for granted. Something that should be more the case as we start to open up traditionally gated areas without compromising surrounding property values, then that’s the trade-off, right?
And I think The Emerald, thanks to the wonderful design that Enrico Daffonchio put into this place, no expense was skimped in making sure that the traditional area is still respected whilst allowing for people to take their first steps into the mobility, into the property market. And these developments, I think, are important for the broader economy for people to be exposed to what property will look like.
So I feel incredibly grateful. I’ve gone in The Emerald from one bed to two bed, all the way up.
The Finance Ghost: I love that. And Hyde Park is such an aspirational area. I have the most wonderful memories when I was a kid – nowhere near Hyde Park, I definitely did not grow up in that segment of the property market – but I remember my dad and I used to go to Look and Listen to – that’s really aging me now – at the Hyde Park Shopping Centre to go and buy CDs, aging myself again, when I was in high school. And then my dad always used to take me on this drive through Hyde Park to be like here’s how the other half live. look at these homes. I remember driving through Houghton and those old Rand Lords kind of areas in Joburg, Westcliffe. you just see these beautiful, beautiful properties. That’s why I say, I’ve always had a great love for how these things look. They really are beautiful. It’s art. It’s just an art that is also something you can live in.
OB, let’s finish this up with the question that I ask all the guests that I’ve had thus far on this wonderful podcast series. And here it is: your biggest mistake on this journey. I know it’s the most cliché question in the world for an entrepreneur, but hopefully everything else we’ve talked about is not cliché, so I’ve got to get one in.
And that is, as I say, your biggest mistake in building everything you’ve built. What would you say that would be?
Obaratile Semenya: It’s going to sound soppy, but underestimating the value of a partner. I think I’ve been lucky to have a fantastic partner through the journey that is property. It’s a tumultuous hair-ripping-out experience. And it’s only in retrospect that I realised that there’s actually no ways I think that I would have navigated that if it wasn’t for a good support system. I’d say my biggest mistake is probably not appreciating that enough, which I do now.
My biggest mistake is not incorporating and including the people in your life as you go down an entrepreneurial journey. It can be a rabbit hole. It can be this tunnel that you go down and you do yourself no service by depriving yourself the people who are most there for you.
So to those people that have that, I hope that they don’t downplay. I’m lucky enough to have a best friend who’s been there for me from the beginning in it. So that would have been my biggest mistake, but it’s not one that I would make now. In retrospect, don’t do it alone would be the best way to answer that question.
The Finance Ghost: Very cool. Very, very nice. I love that. OB, this has been a stunning conversation. Thank you. Really wishing you all the best with everything you’re doing. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you through this process, and you’re doing some really, really cool stuff. So congrats. Well done. It’s a very inspiring story. Keep at it, man. It’s lovely to see.
Obaratile Semenya: Alright. Thank you so, so much. Have a great, great, great, great, great week.
The Finance Ghost: Thanks, OB. Ciao.
Real stories and real people. Yours could be next, plugged in with Capitec. Capitec is an authorized financial services provider, FSP 4669.
Naspers looks to enhance accessibility for a broader base of investors
“The market price of Naspers shares has increased significantly in recent years. Naspers N Ordinary Shares currently trade at one of the highest prices per share on the JSE, significantly exceeding the average price per share of constituents of the JSE Top 40 Index.”
Naspers
Naspers has announced to shareholders that in line with the resolutions adopted at the recent Annual General Meeting, the company will be undertaking a five-for-one share subdivision. This is commonly known as a stock split.
There is no change to the economic interest or voting rights of Naspers N ordinary shareholders. In these situations, there are simply more shares in issue than before without any change to the underlying business, which means that the share price adjusts accordingly and the market cap is unchanged (all else being equal).
Naspers values the Ghost Mail reader base and has thus included the entire announcement below for ease of reference:
Capital Appreciation remains a tale of two divisions (JSE: CTA)
Don’t forget that the name of the group is changing soon
Capital Appreciation Limited is changing its name to Araxi Limited. The new JSE code will be JSE: AXX. This is the ancient Greek word for river, with the company noting that rivers represent continuous forward motion. Rivers do also dry up sometimes, but I don’t think that will be the case for this group based on their underlying momentum.
In an update for the six months to September 2025, the performance seems to once again be one of significant divergence across the two segments. The Payments division has continued with its terminal sales growth and interesting diversification initiatives, while the Software division is struggling with project conversion below the desired level.
They’ve worked hard to get the Software business right and these things unfortunately do take time, with some green shoots visible in terms of major contract awards in the financial services space. They are hoping to return to previous levels of performance in the Software business by 2027.
Other notable insights from the announcement include a reminder of the strength of the group balance sheet (there’s no debt), as well as the annuity nature of revenue in the Payments division (more than half of income and still growing). There are a number of new business initiatives across products like MicroPOS, Halo Dot and an Android device aimed at merchants in lower-tier markets as part of the digitisation of the lower-income economy.
Of course, they couldn’t help but include a playful comment on AI, noting that if you remove “rax” from Araxi, you’re left with AI. One wonders if that’s a sign of things to come in the corporate branding!
Results will be released around 2 December.
Greencoat Renewables had a tough interim period (JSE: GCT)
Wind is unfortunately a volatile resource
As fans of fossil fuels will tell you, renewable energy is a noble pursuit that does come with volatility. If you burn coal, then you know what the outcome of that process will be. If you need the wind to blow, then nature will determine how much power you make. It’s why most sensible people have realised that both are valuable resources in this world.
At Greencoat Renewables, as the name suggests, you won’t find any fossil fuels. This means that there will be periods when the wind just doesn’t blow as much as usual, like in the six months to June 2025 when the wind resource led to power generation that was 15% below budget. This has a knock-on effect on the net asset value (NAV) per share, which has decreased 8.6% based on reductions in wind resource budgets.
The group generated cash of €68.7 million, nearly 40% lower than the prior year. Due to the significant dividend cover, they’ve managed to still hit the full year dividend target, albeit with cover of 1.8x instead of 3.0x.
In terms of positives, the balance sheet is in decent shape overall and the company is signing contracts to provide power to data centres in Europe. There’s also a reduction in management fees in an effort to improve shareholder returns.
Naspers is doing a share split (JSE: NPN)
This is expected to align the price more closely with Prosus (JSE: PRX)
When a share price becomes very high (i.e. the price per share in absolute terms), companies consider using share splits as a way to make the shares easier for people to invest in. The most famous example of this not happening is Berkshire Hathaway’s A shares, which trade at an outrageous $736k per share! Owning one of those is a financial life goal in and of itself. In case you’re wondering, there’s a B share in Berkshire Hathaway that is a lot more attainable.
As for Naspers, the current share price is R5,892 per share. That’s certainly not in any danger of taking away Berkshire’s crown, but it’s high by South African standards and well above the Prosus share price. Naspers has decided that they don’t like the optics of this and they want to enhance accessibility, hence the decision to do a five-for-one stock split (or “share subdivision”) in which each holder of a Naspers N share will hold five shares instead of one.
All else being equal, this means the share price would trade at 20% of current levels. It doesn’t affect the Naspers market cap, as the number of shares in issue will be 5x higher.
Naspers values the Ghost Mail audience and they have included the full announcement here for ease of reference.
Fish oil prices took the tide out for Oceana (JSE: OCE)
Such is life in primary agriculture: sensitivity to global prices
Oceana released a trading statement for the year ending 30 September 2025. Kudos to management – this kind of early warning is exactly what a trading statement is for!
They expect HEPS to decrease by at least 40% for the period, with US dollar fish oil sales prices having halved from the record prices in the prior year. This is because the Peruvian anchovy biomass has recovered, which means supply of fish oil increased and prices corrected. In other words, HEPS fell from what were clearly unsustainable levels.
The group has also given a detailed update for the 11 months to August. It includes a note that Lucky Star only managed flat canned fish volumes locally in an environment of consumer pressure. You know it’s time for interest rates to come down when people can’t afford pilchards! Export demand was up, taking overall volumes 1% higher and allowing Oceana to improve operating margins. Inventory closed in line with the prior period.
Fishmeal and Fish Oil (USA) saw an 11% improvement in sales volumes thanks to improved landings and the heightened level of opening inventory. Sadly, this is where the impact of US dollar fish oil sales prices was really felt, so Daybrook’s earnings were “considerably lower” than before.
Wild Caught Seafood enjoyed a better performance in hake (sales volumes up 30% and European prices were higher), as well as the horse mackerel business in South Africa. Horse mackerel in Namibia was disappointing due to catch rates. Squid also struggled with catch rates.
Detailed results are due for release on 24 November 2025.
As for the share price, the past 5 years have looked like something that would get surfers excited:
OUTsurance released fantastic results (JSE: OUT)
Australia was the star of the show, which isn’t something you’ll see very often for South African companies
OUTsurance has released results for the year ended June 2025. To say they had an incredible year would be an understatement, with normalised earnings up 33.7% and the full year ordinary dividend up 36.2%. There’s even a special dividend as the icing on the cake!
These numbers were driven by the combination of factors that short-term insurers love seeing: solid growth in gross written premium (up 16.8% in Property and Casualty) and an improvement in the claims ratio from 56.8% to 53.6%, which means underwriting margins improved.
The increase in operating losses in OUTsurance Ireland from R218 million to R448 million is because they are busy incubating that business. Instead of throwing money at an acquisition, OUTsurance is doing things the “hard” way with short-term pain and long-term gain. After all, their Australian business is a perfect example of the benefit of building from scratch, as OUTsurance is one of the only South African corporates to have truly made a success of an Australian expansion.
It’s been a great year for the short-term insurance industry and OUTsurance is almost a pure-play in that space, which explains the 7% jump in the share price on the day of release and the 52% increase over the past 12 months!
Sirius raises €105 million in debt (JSE: SRE)
Debt raises are just as important as equity raises
Sirius Real Estate, like practically all property funds, takes advantage of the benefits of financial leverage. This means using debt to boost return on equity. The property sector is perfect for this as the properties themselves are appealing security for lenders and the underlying cash flows are linked to leases, which makes them contractual in nature.
Now, there are many ways to raise debt, including the most obvious solution which is to just phone the bank. For larger funds like Sirius that do regular acquisitions and thus need access to lines of capital, note programmes are a great way to spread the funding risk and attract a variety of institutional debt investors. Another useful feature of a note programme (depending how it is structured) is the use of tap issues, which means raising additional debt capital under the terms of an existing programme.
This is how Sirius has raised €105 million in new notes on the same terms as the existing €359.9 million 1.75% bonds due in November 2028. You may be wondering about that strange number (the capital value, not the interest rate!) – this is actually the second time they are tapping the programme, having raised €59.9 million in May 2024 after the initial issue of €300 million in 2021.
Sirius will use the proceeds for the pipeline of potential acquisitions in Germany and the UK, as well as general corporate purposes. If there’s one company that knows how to find acquisition opportunities and deploy capital, it’s this one.
Southern Sun adds to the positive hospitality narrative (JSE: SSU)
The prepared comments at the AGM are helpful
Southern Sun hosted its AGM and released the prepared comments on SENS, giving us another example today of good disclosure to investors. Importantly, for the first five months of the financial year ending March 2026 (i.e. for April to August 2025), the South African occupancy rate improved by 160 basis points to 59.2%.
It gets better. This uptick in occupancy been accompanied by the average room rate increasing by 6.7% over the period, so room revenue growth came in at an impressive 9.7%. We recently saw City Lodge (JSE: CLH) indicate strong growth in the past couple of months, so there’s an overall improvement in this sector that is exciting to see.
The offshore segment has a very different story to tell unfortunately, with the Paradise Sun in Seychelles having been closed for a major refurbishment. This obviously skews the numbers, with occupancy of just 33.4% vs. 46.5% in the comparable period. The hotel has now reopened and they obviously expect strong trading from the newly renovated facility. There’s unfortunately no good reason why trading has been subdued in Mozambique and Tanzania, so that is having a negative impact on performance that probably won’t magically go away in the next few months.
Once you combine the local and international performance, you get a slight uptick in occupancy rate from 57.1% to 57.8%, with average room rates up 4.0% and overall room revenue growth of 6.4%.
Room revenue is only part of the story, with evening and conferences as another important driver. Thanks to strong demand in that space, the South African business grew EBITDAR (but we don’t know by how much). That’s not a typo by the way – EBITDAR is the industry standard metric in hospitality. They aren’t explicit regarding group earnings, but the narrative suggests that group profits may have dipped due to various factors like the losses at Paradise Sun and major IT costs.
Importantly, the group has a strong balance sheet and can pursue the current expansion pipeline without impacting the cash being returned to shareholders (both share buybacks and dividends).
I think that this is a chart worth keeping an eye on:
Nibbles:
Director dealings:
There have been some interesting trades in shares of Pan African Resources (JSE: PAN) by the CEO. He sold shares worth around R10.9 million in the market and also took profit of R2.7 million on a CFD position. That’s a significant disposal after a sharp rally in the share price, but a small portion of his overall exposure.
A non-executive director of South32 (JSE: S32) bought shares worth just over R3 million.
The group COO of Spar (JSE: SPP) bought shares worth R493k.
An associate of a major subsidiary of WeBuyCars (JSE: WBC) sold shares worth R480k.
An associate of the chairperson of KAP (JSE: KAP) bought shares worth R149k.
The offer for Renergen (JSE: REN) by ASP Isotopes (JSE: ISO) had a fulfilment date for conditions of 30 September 2025. They think they might still get that right, but they’ve taken the step of extending the date out to 28 November 2025 just in case. There are a number of difficult approvals already out of the way, like the Competition Commission. This has freed them up to start working on the integration plan while the rest of the conditions are met.
If you’re keen to learn more about AngloGold Ashanti (JSE: ANG), then you can check out a presentation that the company is using at two major conferences. You’ll find it on this page under “recent presentations” on the left.
Copper 360 (JSE: CPR) released their integrated annual report and AGM notice, as well as something that investors don’t like seeing: a “change statement” regarding the financials. This is a rare thing on the market in which something has changed in the financials in the period between their announcement and the publication of the annual report. There are numerous changes to the numbers, ranging from balance sheet items (understandable given the recently announced capital restructuring) through to reallocations of cost of sales (that’s hard to understand). The headline loss per share is 33.82 cents instead of the 31.95 cents initially reported.
MultiChoice (JSE: MCG) announced that the reorganisation of the South African operations has begun, as all the conditions for the transactions have been met. These transactions are necessary to meet the various regulatory conditions for the Canal+ deal. This has particular relevance for shareholders in the Phuthuma Nathi structure.
Marshall Monteagle (JSE: MMP) announced that financial director Edward Beale has stepped down from that role and will immediately become the chairman of the board to replace Rory Kerr. This means they need a lead independent director, with Dean Douglas taking that role. Heidi Koegelenberg has been promoted to the financial director role.
Accelerate Property Fund finds a buyer for 73 Hertzog Boulevard (JSE: APF)
This disposal is at a discount to NAV
The Accelerate Property Fund share price is fascinating at the moment. The company is trading at a gigantic discount to net asset value (NAV) per share, as there are a number of share price overhangs (like the related party issue). This means that if the entire NAV was converted to cash tomorrow and distributed to shareholders, the returns would be wonderful.
Now, converting a NAV to cash isn’t easy. There are no plans to sell Fourways Mall, so a full “value unlock” isn’t the strategy right now. But what Accelerate is doing is offloading as many other properties as it can.
Here’s the thing that the market is responding quite strangely to: if you sell a property at a discount to NAV, then it can still be at a premium to the implied value based on where the share price is trading. Using a simple example, if the NAV is R100 and the share price is R40, then converting the NAV to cash of R80 is a 20% discount to NAV and a 100% uptick in value for shareholders! It’s not quite that simple obviously as the fund would still trade at a slight discount to even its cash NAV, but you hopefully get the idea.
In the case of 73 Hertzog Boulevard, Accelerate has sold the property for R68 million. They need to pay sales commission of 3% and some other costs, so they are looking at R66 million in net proceeds. The valuation as at March 2025 was R78 million. Net of costs, that’s roughly a 15% discount to NAV. There are some very good property companies on the JSE that trade at a higher discount than that. Accelerate trades at a discount to NAV of 80%, so you would expect the market to celebrate this update.
Instead, the share price dropped 12% on the day on strong volumes (by Accelerate’s standards). The key seems to be the Portside circular and getting that deal across the line, as I think the market is concerned that the small deals are getting done and the Portside circular has been delayed.
Ascendis Health wants to delist (JSE: ASC)
This time, the company wants to do it itself
You may recall a lot of social media activity and accusations flying all over the place the last time that Ascendis Health was trying to delist from the market. That time around, the potential delisting was structured as an offer to shareholders by a consortium of parties (including related parties). The price at the time was R0.80 a share.
That was back in November 2023, almost two years ago. We are now at a point where the company is considering a delisting via a repurchase of shares, which means the delisting is achieved through the use of the company’s balance sheet rather than an offer from a third party.
A cautionary announcement tells us that this delisting will be priced at R0.97 a share. Although that’s 21% higher than the previous offer, you have to think about the cost of capital over nearly a two-year period. Viewed through that lens, this offer is actually quite similar to the previous one.
The share price closed nearly 10% higher on the day at R0.90. Now we wait and see if the cautionary evolves into a firm plan to do this.
Revenue growth is hard to find at Caxton & CTP Publishers and Printers (JSE: CAT)
Kudos to management: operating profit was up in both major segments
Caxton closed 5.6% higher after releasing results that reflect a 16.7% increase in the dividend. Based on that growth, you might be expecting to see an exciting revenue outcome. Instead, revenue was up by just 0.9%! The good news is that operating costs increased by only 0.1%, so this revenue growth was sufficient to drive an improvement to operating profit in both major segments.
In Caxton’s publishing, printing and distribution business, they continued to suffer a decline in advertising revenues. Advertising was down 3%, with grocery retailers keeping local newspapers going. Encouragingly, The Citizen newspaper managed to grow revenue by 3%, with the focus on the Legal Notice market paying off (literally). Overall, Caxton has to manage a difficult treadmill in which newspaper tonnages at the printing plants are under pressure, mitigated by the volumes that Caxton is winning from retailers. Magazines are just as bad if not worse, with Caxton hoping that the education book demand from the proposed Foundation Phase curriculum rewrite will be in place for the start of the 2026 school year. As we know in South Africa, depending on government for anything is a risky strategy.
Moving on to the packaging and stationery business, Caxton has difficult underlying exposures to the alcohol industry. We know that the global trend at the moment is one of reduced consumption, so that’s something to think about over the long term. To add to the questions around structural demand, they also have a cigarette packaging operation. Thankfully, they also have exposure to quick service restaurants and the FMCG sector. These might be more cyclical industries, but they arguably have better structural demand opportunities.
Speaking of structural challenges, Caxton also has a stationery division that operates in the back-to-school space. The birth rate (and the recent news around Curro (JSE: COH) being taken private) tells us that this is also going to be a low-growth area.
As you can see, nothing comes easy at Caxton. They therefore have to focus on cost control and being as efficient as possible, something they seem to have done really well in this period.
If you work through the underlying results, you’ll see that HEPS fell by 8.8% without any normalisation adjustments. This is because of a non-recurring insurance receipt in the base period that was recognised as income. If you normalise for that, then HEPS was up 12.0%. The increase in the dividend tells us that the normalised number has high cash quality of earnings, so I’m happy to go with that.
As year-to-date share price charts go, this is quite a thing:
Gemfields executed its first emerald auction since November 2024 (JSE: GML)
They seem to be happy with the outcome
The challenge with gemstones is that their value is as much a function of their flaws and non-homogenous nature as anything else. This makes it really hard to compare the trend in auctions at Gemfields, as the underlying mix of quality is always different. This is just an unfortunate reality of the sector and it makes things trickier for investors.
One thing we know for sure is that emeralds have been in a bad place, with Gemfields having last held an auction in November 2024. They then suspended the mining operations at Kagem in January 2025 based on weak supply and demand dynamics in the market. Mining recommenced in May and they’ve now gone back to market with the first auction in nearly a year!
Thankfully, they sold all the lots including a particularly fancy gemstone named Imboo. The fact that individual stones have names tells you just how difficult it is to track any kind of trend in this space.
Management seems happy with the outcome, talking about “strong demand” and “robust prices” that “validated” the decisions they’ve taken. In the context of all the caveats I’ve provided here about comparing auctions, the price per carat tells us that this auction was way ahead of November 2024 (41% better pricing) and roughly in line with auctions in mid-2023 and mid-2024.
The Gemfields share price is down 11% year-to-date. It’s worth noting that there was a rights issue a few months ago that had a negative impact on the share price. It has recovered quite well from the mid-year pressure related to that capital raise though! The latest auction results can only help.
Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust’s dividend is higher than its earnings (JSE: SCD)
Unsurprisingly, the market didn’t love this
Schroder European Real Estate announced a dip in quarterly earnings due to the sale of the Frankfurt DIY asset in the previous quarter. This unfortunately means that the quarterly dividend was only 90% covered by adjusted EPRA earnings (the European standard). Or, put differently, the payout ratio is more than 100%! This obviously cannot carry on forever, so the market is quite correctly being cautious here.
A much bigger risk to the dividend is the ongoing tax fight in France, where the French Tax Authority has demanded the payment of €14.2 million including interest and penalties. The group will appeal this decision and has not raised a provision, but they are ring-fencing this amount from cash reserves.
With the share price closing 6.9% lower on the day, the market is clearly concerned about what the forward dividend yield will look like. The underlying portfolio was valued at roughly the same level as the previous quarter, so there also hasn’t been any recent capital growth to get excited about.
Nibbles:
Director dealings:
The CEO of Argent Industrial (JSE: ART) sold shares worth R2.46 million.
Shareholders in Fortress Real Estate (JSE: FFB) are being given the choice to either receive a cash dividend or a dividend in specie of shares in NEPI Rockcastle (JSE: NRP). This is in line with the recent approach taken by Fortress regarding creatives uses for its 15.2% stake in NEPI Rockcastle.
Altvest Capital (JSE: ALV) will start trading under its new name Africa Bitcoin Corporation from Tuesday 23rd September. The new share code is JSE: BAC and the underlying preference shares will also all change their stock codes.
Kore Potash (JSE: KP2) released its interim financials for the six months to June 2025. As an exploration company, the progress made on developing the project is usually more important than the specifics of the financials. The company is still in the process of finalising the funding package with OWI-RAMS GMBH, with full focus on moving towards financial close. The company had a cash and cash equivalents balance of $3.5 million as at 30 June 2025.
Sony Pictures went into the summer of 2025 hungry for a blockbuster. What it got instead was a bruising reminder that timing, contracts, and a little bit of bad luck can rewrite the rules of Hollywood.This is the story of megahit KPop Demon Hunters and a tale of how different risk cultures at Sony and Netflix led to this outcome.
By the time the popcorn buckets were swept up and the box office receipts were tallied, Sony stood alone as the only major studio without a single $500 million–grossing film from May through August this year (this timeline coincides with the US summer, which is traditionally when cinemas make the most money). Its biggest box office hit of the year so far, 28 Years Later, limped tojust over $150 million worldwide. For Sony, the countdown to their next big release – 2026’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day – can’t tick by fast enough.
Although technically, Sony actually did make one of the biggest cultural sensations of the summer. It’s just inconvenient that Netflix is feasting on most of the spoils.
A monster hit, but for the “wrong” company
The film in question is KPop Demon Hunters, an anime-style, neon-drenched, $100 million animated musical about a K-pop trio who moonlight as supernatural monster fighters. In almost any other era, this would have been Sony’s dream: a franchise with built-in sequel potential, crossover music sales, and Halloween costume dominance. But despite Sony writing, making, and producing the thing, it belongs almost entirely to Netflix.
Released globally (and exclusively) on the streamer in June, Demon Hunters has been unstoppable. As it stands at time of writing this article, the film has racked up 291.5 million views, cementing its spot at No. 1 on Netflix’s all-time Top 10 list for English-language films and dethroning Red Notice as Netflix’s most-watched original film ever.
And it’s not just the movie – remember, this is a musical, so there are musicians involved too. The soundtrack, featuring both the fictional band HUNTR/X and the real-world K-pop powerhouse who voiced them, Twice, has taken on a life of its own. Seven songs currently sit inSpotify’s global Top 50, and “Golden,” the breakout anthem, has spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Netflix, after more than a decade of trial and error in animation, finally has its megahit. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of Mickey Mouse quaking in his little boots.
Sony – the blood, sweat and tears behind it all – will make about $20 million from the deal, which is less than some stars pocket for appearing in Netflix originals. And while the studio does retain the rights to produce sequels or spinoffs, it gets no back-end upside from the first film’s runaway success. In other words, Sony did the work, and Netflix gets the empire.
How did Sony let this one slip?
To answer that question, we need to look all the way back to the pandemic-era dealmaking of 2021 (how does that already feel like a lifetime ago?). At the time, theaters were shuttered or running at reduced capacity, the future of cinema was uncertain, and every studio without its own streaming platform was scrambling to stay afloat.
Sony didn’t have a mass-market streamer of its own – no Disney+, no Max, no Peacock. What it had instead was a relatively solid filmmaking reputation and the option to sell its content to the highest bidder. That year, Sony inked a lucrative “Pay One” output deal with Netflix, covering theatrical films after their box office runs. Alongside it, the studio signed a separate “direct-to-platform” agreement: Netflix would get a first look at certain projects, with a guarantee to greenlight a set number of them for direct release.
Of the films that Netflix chose, Sony would receive the production budget plus a premium (i.e. profit margin) – typically about 25 percent, capped at $20 million. Netflix would own the rights outright, with no obligation to share profits or renegotiate.
Back then, it looked like a smart hedge. Theatrical grosses were shaky, layoffs loomed, and Sony needed reliable cash flow, pronto. Movies like Greyhound (sold to Apple) and The Mitchells vs. the Machines (sold to Netflix) found audiences outside of cinemas while boosting Sony’s bottom line. Even if a breakout occurred, the thinking went, the studio had guaranteed income during a turbulent era.
No one – least of all Sony – predicted that KPop Demon Hunters would be that breakout, four years after the pandemic.
Could it have worked in theaters?
Of course the billion-dollar question at this point has to be whether KPop Demon Hunters would have been a global hit if Sony had kept it for itself and released it in theatres instead.
The case for yes: the movie is a genre mashup with global appeal, featuring an anime aesthetic, a built-in K-pop fanbase, and music with real commercial traction. By the time “Golden” hit No. 1, Sony could have been printing money off concert tie-ins, merchandising, and spin-offs. A theatrical launch might have been modest at first, but could have snowballed into a full-on franchise as the earworm-quality of the songs took effect. In other words, Sony may have seen slow uptake on the first movie, but once audiences were hooked, they would have been minting it with every sequel.
The case for no: original animation has been a tough sell at the post-Covid box office. With the exception of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel, anime-style projects rarely draw mainstream audiences in large numbers. Netflix’s algorithm-driven environment may have been the perfect incubator, offering slow build, viral chatter, and music-driven discovery. In theaters, Demon Hunters might have opened soft, played well in Asian territories, and then gone on to explode in streaming anyway.
Netflix might have been the right place at the right time. But that doesn’t soften the sting for Sony.
The Netflix playbook pays off
Netflix has spent years trying to crack animation, with mostly middling results. KPop Demon Hunters gives it more than just a hit movie – it gives it a virtual band with millions of fans worldwide. And unlike real-world pop idols, movie band HUNTR/X won’t age out of their prime, demand renegotiated contracts, or enlist for mandatory military service (looking at you, BTS).
Better still, the cast behind the voices aren’t A-list stars with big bargaining power. Netflix owns the music, the characters, and the momentum. Sequels are already inevitable, and this time the streamer doesn’t need to pay Sony for the rights.
It’s the stuff every studio boss dreams of: a relatively cheap hit that spawns multiple revenue streams, from music to merchandise to future films. The upside for Netflix really is nearly limitless.
No risk, no reward
Sony has long argued that it “won” the streaming wars by refusing to launch its own platform. Unlike Warner Bros. or Disney, it didn’t pour billions into trying to beat Netflix at its own game. Instead, it played the middleman, selling films to whichever streamer paid most. That strategy insulated Sony from the streaming bloodbath, which meant no ballooning subscriber-acquisition costs, no shareholder fury, and no need to explain billion-dollar losses to shareholders.
But the KPop Demon Hunters saga shows the downside of being the arms dealer. Sometimes you sell the weapon that wins the war, and someone else plants the flag.
In the end, KPop Demon Hunters is a parable about timing, contracts, and the unpredictable alchemy of hits. In 2021, selling to Netflix looked like a safe bet – keep the lights on, avoid layoffs, hedge against a wobbly theatrical landscape. In 2025, it looks like Sony accidentally sold off the crown jewels. And Hollywood, never one to pass up a narrative, will keep asking the same question: What if Sony had just taken the risk and released KPop Demon Hunters itself?
About the author: Dominique Olivier
Dominique Olivier is the founder of human.writer, where she uses her love of storytelling and ideation to help brands solve problems.
She is a weekly columnist in Ghost Mail and collaborates with The Finance Ghost on Ghost Mail Weekender, a Sunday publication designed to help you be more interesting.She now also writes a regular column for Daily Maverick.
We begin with a year-to-date chart for City Lodge Hotels, reflecting a rather sad and sorry tale of a market that stopped believing in SA Inc:
Some of the metrics looked pretty bleak in the interim earnings, like occupancy rates. But with the release of full-year earnings, there’s been a significant improvement in the second half of the financial year. Even more importantly, the first couple of months of the new financial year are telling a much better story.
For the year ended June 2025, City Lodge increased revenue by 3% thanks to pricing increases that offset a 200 basis points decrease in the occupancy rate to 56%. HEPS for the year was down 0.3%. Adjusted HEPS, which takes out the impact of things like forex, was up 9%. As always, the dividend is a better indication of which HEPS number to focus on, with no increase at all in the dividend for the year.
This was a year of significant investment in refurbishments of hotels, as well as a refreshed website that they must be very proud of because it made the cut as a highlight of their capex programme in the announcement! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Presumably, the website wasn’t cheap. More importantly, they took advantage of the weaker share price by repurchasing shares worth R30 million.
The refurbishments do take some rooms out of commission, but I somehow doubt that this is the reason for the dip in occupancy. There’s still a demand problem, especially as City Lodge doesn’t really appeal to international inbound travellers in the same way that Southern Sun (JSE: SSU) does. The important thing is that occupancy was down 400 basis points for the first half of the year, so ending the year down 200 basis points reflects a decent recovery in the second half.
The food and beverage part of the business has been a major strategic push in recent years and the company has done a great job in that regard. This segment grew revenue by 8% for the year and now accounts for 20% of total revenue (up from 19% in the prior year).
With a tough revenue story, it’s really valuable that the company managed to keep cost growth at just 4%. This did wonders for protecting profitability.
We now get to the particularly good news: July and August 2025 saw an uptick in occupancy of 400 basis points year-on-year. Food and beverage revenues jumped by 16% and 14% for July and August respectively. To add to this, the group is now debt free.
Perhaps it’s time for that share price chart to start heading back into the green?
An ugly day for the Discovery share price (JSE: DSY)
And this was despite strong earnings
The market can be such an unforgiving place. Discovery tanked 9.5% on a day in which it released earnings that showed HEPS growth of 30% for the year ended June 2025. But how can that be?
The concern definitely isn’t a metric like annualised return on opening embedded value, which increased from 13.2% to 15.7%. The final dividend per share was up by a juicy 31%, so it isn’t that either. And as we already know from Discovery’s detailed recent trading update, Discovery Bank achieved breakeven in the second half of the financial year, which is ahead of plan.
A particularly fun fact about Discovery Bank is that 65% of their new clients don’t have any other Discovery products. This isn’t just a cross-sell model. If anything, it’s a helpful funnel to bring new clients into the broader group.
Word on the street is that expected future profit from insurance contracts could be the issue for the share price, with a concern around margins going forwards. I’m certainly not an expert on this sector, so I can’t say for sure whether this is what drove the drop in the share price. Something that did jump out at me is a decline in new business in Discovery Life, a key source of bringing new clients into the Discovery ecosystem.
Despite this, the group’s growth ambition is earnings growth of 12.5% – 17.5% per annum in Discovery South Africa from FY25 to FY29, along with 20% – 30% per annum in Vitality over that period. Those are lofty goals, helped along by Discovery Bank now being on the exciting part of the J Curve.
If there’s any criticism to be levelled here, it’s that whoever did these charts needs a tough talk about the use of the y-axis:
Either that, or it’s done on purpose to make the volatility seem much lower than it actually is. I’ll let you decide whether this is a happy accident or a deliberate distortion of the charts.
FirstRand’s UK issue is but a scratch m’lord (JSE: FSR)
Group earnings grew by 10% and guidance looks fantastic
FirstRand has been dealing with a nasty headache in the UK motor finance industry. There’s been a lot of regulatory noise around commissions paid to dealers. FirstRand recognised a provision of R3 billion in the prior year and they’ve increased that provision by R2.7 billion in the year ended June 2025. They’ve also spent R253 million in legal and professional fees on the matter in the past year (an actual cash outflow, not just a provision).
Despite this significant cost, FirstRand still managed to grow normalised earnings and HEPS by 10%. Normalised return on equity was 20.2%, which means they are still one of the best performing financial services groups in South Africa and certainly the pick of the legacy banks in terms of underlying business quality, which is why FirstRand has been trading at a premium valuation for as long as I can remember.
Cash quality of earnings is strong, with the dividend up 12%.
There was a small uptick in the credit loss ratio, attributed to various factors including “early emerging strain” in the SME book within FNB Commercial. Those interest rate cuts really need to come now, although the retail book actually seems to be in good shape.
Surprisingly, the rest of Africa wasn’t great for FirstRand in this period, bucking the trend we’ve seen elsewhere. FNB Africa grew earnings by 5% and RMB was down 2% as reported, or up 8% and 5% in constant currency respectively.
The star performer was WesBank, with earnings up by 20%. It only contributes 6% of group earnings though. RMB was also solid, with earnings up 10% and a contribution to the group numbers of 26%. If you look through all the segments, the major source of earnings uplift was at the centre, which means areas like endowment and group capital management. Banks are complicated things.
We see this come through again in the note on net interest income, which increased by 6%. The capital endowment benefit was up 14% thanks to the asset and liability management strategies that they use, while they also increased both deposits and loans to customers. Interestingly, they note subdued demand for mortgages, with growth up just 3%. South Africans are buying cars, not houses. Further bucking the trend in the sector, net interest margin also improved (by 6 basis points) thanks to the mix effect of underlying loans.
On the non-interest revenue side, income grew by 6%. Insurance was a particular highlight, up 9%. Unsurprisingly, as we’ve seen everywhere else in the sector, short-term insurance was the major driver.
In RMB, it was advisory fees that really did well, along with realisations of private equity assets. Trading income fell by 27%, so again the benefit of having various sources of revenue is on full display.
Looking ahead to the new financial year, FirstRand expects high single-digit growth in net interest income, which is impressive. The credit loss ratio is expected to remain at the bottom of the through-the-cycle range. Non-interest revenue growth is expected to be in the low- to mid-teens, which would be excellent. They expect cost growth below inflation, which then translates into normalised earnings growth in the “high mid-teens” in their words. Return on equity is expected to be at the upper end of the range of 18% to 22%.
It’s little wonder that the share price closed 6.4% higher based on such strong guidance!
Lesaka Technologies guides a strong FY26 (JSE: LSK)
They just have an awkward accounting restatement to deal with
The unfortunate thing about the markets is that people don’t always read properly. When an announcement talks about an accounting restatement, far too many people just panic and head for the exit as sentiment deteriorates. At Lesaka Technologies, there is indeed a restatement of the past few quarters, but revenue will go up in that restatement rather than down. This relates to agent vs. principal accounting and the split between revenue and cost of goods sold. The TL;DR is that there’s no impact on net profit, so my read is that it’s really just a storm in a teacup that is more a function of accounting complexities than anything else.
If we focus on the fourth quarter earnings that bring FY25 to a close, we find that net revenue was up 47% and adjusted EBITDA increased by 61%. That’s encouraging margin expansion, although the same isn’t true for the full year where revenue was up 38% and adjusted EBITDA increased by “only” 33%.
If you look at the net loss without adjustments for the year, you’ll find a gigantic loss of $87.5 million. This is primarily because of $49.3 million in post-tax negative charges related to the sale of MobiKwik. Adjusted profits are a better way to assess maintainable performance, but investors also shouldn’t gloss over situations where assets were sold at a loss, even if they were considered non-core.
Looking ahead, the guidance for FY26 is adjusted EBITDA growth of at least 35%. They are also introducing adjusted earnings per share as a metric (like all technology companies love to do), with an expectation for this to at least double. Notably, the guidance excludes the Bank Zero acquisition.
The market didn’t love this, perhaps because of the revenue restatements. The share price closed 6.9% lower on the day, taking the year-to-date drop to 23%.
Mantengu looks to acquire New Salt Rock City, giving control of a PGM tailings business (JSE: MTU)
They need to be careful with how they’ve structured this
Mantengu announced the acquisition of 100% of New Salt Rock City, which owns 60% of Kilken Platinum. In turn, Kilken Platinum owns 70% of the Kilken Imbani Joint Venture. In other words, this structure means that Mantengu will ultimately control the joint venture (subject to any unusual terms of that agreement that we aren’t privy to), but will only have 42% economic exposure (60% x 70%).
The Kilken Imbani Joint Venture treats the tailings from the Amandelbult platinum mine owned by Valterra Platinum (JSE: VAL). The joint venture acquires the PGM rich tailings from the mine, processes them and then sells them back to the mine.
For some reason, the announcement says they will issue shares to New Salt Rock City, which doesn’t make any sense as that’s the entity they are acquiring. I’m sure they mean that shares will be issued to the seller of that business, being the Lutzkie Besigheids Trust. It will be done in such a way that the seller will have less than 35% in Mantengu and thus won’t trigger a mandatory offer, which means there’s a cash component as well. There’s no indication yet of how it will be funded.
The price also hasn’t been announced yet, as this will be established during the due diligence. All we have to work with is a valuation from back in 2020 that values the joint venture at R4.4 billion. Inexplicably, the last set of audited financials for the joint venture was from 2019! Sigh.
We haven’t even gotten to the weirdest part yet. The CEO and CFO of Mantengu Mining will be appointed to the board of Kilken immediately upon execution of the term sheet i.e. before any of the deal conditions are met and before the price has even been agreed. They better hope that there isn’t a Competition Commission approval requirement for this deal, as one of the core elements of competition law is that you cannot behave as though the deal is done before it is actually approved by the regulator. I’m no legal expert, but it’s hard to see how a director appointment wouldn’t be in breach of that. Perhaps things have changed since my advisory days a decade ago, but I doubt it.
The due diligence period will last for three months, with the CEO and CFO being directors of a company that they wouldn’t even have done a due diligence on. That’s certainly not a risk I would personally take.
Nibbles:
Director dealings:
A non-executive director of two major subsidiaries of MTN (JSE: MTN) – and more importantly, the group COO) – sold shares worth a meaty R14 million. That’s a large disposal after a strong rally in the price.
A director of SPAR (JSE: SPP) bought shares worth R748k.
A director of a major subsidiary of PBT Group (JSE: PBG) bought shares worth almost R500k.
Barloworld (JSE: BAW) updated the market on the standby offer conditions and the acceptance levels thus far. The Namibian Competition Commission approval has now been received, with only the COMESA and Angolan approvals outstanding. It’s always the regulators in the rest of Africa that take the longest. The longstop date has been extended by three calendar months to 11 December 2025 to achieve these approvals. At this stage, the offer has been accepted by holders of 41.1% of Barloworld shares in issue, which would give the consortium and the Barloworld Foundation an effective 64.5% in Barloworld. The offer will be open for 10 business days after the transaction becomes unconditional, so it’s likely there are shareholders out there just keeping their options open until they have no choice but to accept or decline.
The various resolutions required for the implementation of the Cilo Cybin (JSE: CCC) transactions were all passed by shareholders. The company will be transferring its listing to the main board of the JSE on 29 September.
Libstar (JSE: LBR) has not exactly been a success story on the local market, with the share price having shed nearly 70% of its value since listing. This is why Libstar has been able to repurchase the shares in its B-BBEE scheme for nominal value. If a share price heads in the wrong direction, then so too will the value in a B-BBEE scheme. As these schemes usually have huge amounts of leverage in them, they can easily end up with no value unless the underlying shares go up in value significantly over time.
For those who like to get a sense of the cost of debt, Bidvest (JSE: BVT) has priced US$-denominated seven-year bonds at a coupon of 6.2%. The notes are issued in the UK (despite being in US dollars) and are guaranteed by Bidvest, so that’s a solid indication of the group cost of debt in hard currency.
Although the offer by Primary Health Properties (JSE: PHP) to shareholders of Assura (JSE: AHR) has now formally closed, there is still the compulsory or “squeeze-out” offer to get the rest of the shares. In other words, even for those who didn’t accept the offer in time, they will likely be forced to sell their shares anyway.
Mantengu has entered into a binding term sheet with the Lutzkie Besigheids Trust to acquire 100% of New Salt Rock City which in turn owns 60% of Kilken Platinum. Kilken is the 70% owner of the Kilken Imbani Joint Venture. The jv is an integrated processing operation treating the tailings from the Rustenburg Platinum Mines owned by Valterra Platinum. The purchase consideration, which is still to be finalised pending a due diligence, will be payable in a combination of cash and shares issued by Mantengu.
Anglo American has announced a proposed merger with Canada’s Teck Resources in a US$60 billion deal. Anglo has a market capitalisation of R630 billion while Toronto-listed Teck is valued at c. R300 billion. As this is a merger, no significant takeover premium is being paid by Anglo who will issue 1,33 shares to existing Teck investors for each share they hold in the company. Anglo shareholders will receive $4,5 billion via a special dividend (using proceeds received from the shedding of its remaining shareholding in Valterra Platinum) and will end up with a 62.4% stake in the merged entity to be called Anglo Teck. The new entity will shift its headquarters to Canada and retain its primary listing in London with secondary listings in Johannesburg, Toronto and New York. The merger will concentrate around 70% of the company’s portfolio in copper, alongside iron ore and zinc. The merger is expected to produce a total $800 million in pre-tax savings. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals expected to complete within 12-18 months.
The Spar is to sell its interest in Spar Switzerland to Tannenwald Holding AG in a deal with an equity value of c.R1,03 billion. In addition, Spar will be entitled to further earn-out payments of up to c.R660 million due at the end of 2027 based on actual achieved EBITDA of Spar Switzerland for FY26 and FY27.
CP Finance, as subsidiary of Newpark REIT, has entered into a conditional agreement to dispose of the industrial property known as Crown Mines, situated at 28 Renaissance Drive in Crown City, Johannesburg. Aviwe Nonya will pay R101,4 million to Newpark for the property, the proceeds of which will be used to reduce debt and fund new acquisitions.
As of 11 September 2025, Newco’s Standby Offer had received valid acceptances in respect of 76,67 million Barloworld ordinary shares equating to a c.41.1% stake in the company. This together with the Consortium’s and Barloworld Foundation’s existing shareholdings, equates to 64.5% of the shares in issue.
Unlisted Companies
Rekindle Learning, a women-led local digital learning innovator, has acquired EpiTek, a South African educational technology (EdTech) company that provides Software as a Service (SaaS) for online education platforms tailored for the African market. The EpiTek acquisition positions Rekindle Learning as a significant player in a sector largely dominated by international players. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Educational technology company The Invigilator, has secured US$11 million in international equity investment led by Kaltroco, a private investment company based in Jersey and investment professionals in Nashville, Zurich and Cape Town. The investment will give it the ability to ramp up AI development, allowing greater access to education while maintaining assessment credibility. It will roll out further, creating teams and presence in the US, Asia and Europe. Since inception in 2020, The Invigilator has served over 100 institutions with over 850,000 registered students, processing over six million results through more than 75,000 assessments across these institutions.
The African Forestry Impact Platform (AFIP), a fund of New Forests, a global investment manager of nature-based real assets and natural capital strategies, has invested in Rance Timber, a forestry and saw milling company in South Africa. The family-owned business consists of c.14,000 hectares of pine plantations and two sawmills based in the Eastern Cape. The acquisition follows AFIP’s earlier investment in Green Resources in East Africa. The fund, which has US$8 billion in assets is headquarter in Australia. Financial details were undisclosed.
Mulilo Energy, a renewable energy developer and strategic equity investor based in Cape Town, has secured a corporate facility from Standard Bank with an initial commitment of R1,1 billion available to support equity commitments while a further R5,9 billion can be allocated from headroom as the security pool grows raising commitments to R7 billion. This will enable Mulilo to execute on a robust pipeline of renewable energy projects spanning REIPPPP, Battery Energy Storage Systems and private off-take agreements with aggregators and traders.
TaxTim, a Cape Town-based digital tax assistant has been acquired by a consortium led by Twofold Capital and including Stellenbosch-based Octoco. Founded in 2011, TaxTim’s platform integrates with Sars eFiling, guiding users through a step-by-step process to prepare and submit returns and has processed over R700 million in tax refunds for its users to date.
Fintech platform Float has secured US$2,6 million (R46 million) in funding co-led by Invenfin (89% held by Remgro) and SAAD Investment Holdings with participation from existing investors including Platform Investment Partners. Lighthouse Venture Partners contributed as an investor and strategic adviser. Float offers consumers a responsible alternative to traditional credit by enabling them to split large credit-card purchases into monthly instalments up to 24 months without interest or fees, using existing credit limits. The funds will be used to scale Float’s footprint across SA, improve its technology and prepare for international market expansion.
Cape Town-based HOSTAFRICA, a provider of web hosting, domains and VPS services for the African continent has signed an agreement to acquire the Tanzanian web hosting company Zesha (T). HOSTAFRICA already has a footprint in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Financial details were undisclosed.
Libstar has exercised its option to repurchase 73,049,783 shares from the special purpose vehicles – Business Venture Investments No 2071 and Business Venture Investments No 2072 owned by the Libstar Employee Share Trust. The option became exercisable on the scheme’s seventh anniversary. The repurchased shares have reverted to authorised but unissued shares of the company.
The category 1 transaction announced by eMedia in June this year involved the subscription by Venfin (Remgro) of 18,3 million EMH N shares, the disposal by Venfin of about 17,7 million ordinary shares it owned in EMI, post the subscription, to EMH in exchange for 220,1 million EMH N shares. This resulted in giving eMedia control of the entity EMI that holds its stake in e.tv., eNCA, OpenView and Yfm. As per the transaction agreement, Remgro has now unbundled to shareholders by way of a distribution in specie, its 35% stake in EMH, creating a significantly larger percentage of the EMH N shares now in the hands of public shareholders.
Copper 360 intends to raise new equity of R400 million from existing shareholders at a price of 50 cents per share, underwritten by Differential Capital, in the amount of R260 million. In addition, the company will undertake a debt restructure with the conversion of long-term debt instruments on its balance sheet and the reduction of revenue-based royalty payments. The debt conversion will result in the issue of a maximum of 1,5 billion new ordinary shares issued in terms of the rights offer.
Last week Dipula Properties launched an equity raise of c.R500 million, implemented through an accelerated bookbuild process to fund acquisitions, which will include the Protea Gardens Mall in Soweto, announced on 19 August 2025 for R478,1 million. The bookbuild raised R559 million with 102,946,593 new ordinary shares placed at an issue price of R5.43 per share. The issue price represents a discount of 4.23% to the closing price prior to announcement and a discount of 4.86% to the 30-day VWAP.
Altvest Capital has launched an equity capital raise through the allotment and issue of 1 million shares at R11.00 per share. Having formally adopted the Bitcoin Treasury Strategy, the company now proposes to change the company name to The Africa Bitcoin Corporation, subject to shareholder approval. The name change is expected to take effect from 12 November 2025.
PBT Group is to change its name to PBT Holdings to better reflect its entire service offering – providing services via three core brands, PBT Technology Services, PBT Insurance Technologies and CyberPro Consulting. Shareholders will need to vote on this and will trading under the new name from 12 November 2025.
Pan African Resources is to apply to move the trading of its shares from AIM to the main market of the LSE. Management believes that the proposed move to the Main Market could enhance the company’s corporate profile and broaden its access to a wider pool of UK and global investors thereby supporting its next phase of growth.
The revised offer by Primary Health Properties (PHP) of Assura closed on 10 September. On 11 September PHP listed a further 44,845,540 new PHP shares in terms of the scheme. Following the successful acquisition the trading of Assura shares on the Main Board of the JSE is expected to be suspended on 3 October 2025.
Cilo Cybin previously indicated that the expected date of transfer of the company to the Main Board was Friday, 26 September 2025. The revised expected date of transfer is now Monday, 29 September 2025.
This week the following companies announced the repurchase of shares:
The Board of Old Mutual has approved a share buyback of up to R3 billion subject to prevailing market conditions. The buyback will proceed while the share price reflects a level that is considered accretive to shareholder value.
South32 continued with its US$200 million repurchase programme announced in August 2024. The shares will be repurchased over the period 12 September 2025 to 11 September 2026. This week 691,649,215 shares were repurchased for an aggregate cost of A$4,30 million.
On March 6, 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 170,951 ordinary shares at an average price of 188 pence for an aggregate £321,528.
Investec ltd commenced its share purchase and buy-back programme of up to R2,5 billion (£100 million). Over the period 3 to 9 September 2025, Investec ltd purchased on the LSE, 8,60,871 Investec plc ordinary share at an average price of £5.5219 per share and 1,237,210 Investec plc shares on the JSE at an average price of R131.2998 per share. Over the same period Investec ltd repurchased 546,340 of its shares at an average price per share of R131.5593. 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.
The purpose of Bytes Technology’s share repurchase programme, of up to a maximum aggregate consideration of £25 million, is to reduce Bytes’ share capital. This week 227,893 shares were repurchased at an average price per share of £4.10 for an aggregate £929,881.
Glencore plc’s current share buy-back programme plans to acquire shares of an aggregate value of up to US$1 billion. The shares will be repurchased on the LSE, BATS, Chi-X and Aquis exchanges and is expected to be completed in February 2026. This week 10,951,423 million shares were repurchased at an average price of £2.89 per share for an aggregate £31,66 million.
In May 2025 Tharisa plc announced it would undertake a repurchase programme of up to US$5 million. Shares have been trading at a significant discount, having been negatively impacted by the global commodity pricing environment, geo-political events and market volatility. Over the period 1 to 5 September 2025, the company repurchased 5,438 shares at an average price of R21.80 on the JSE and 148,499 shares at 92.2 pence per share on the LSE.
In May 2025, British American Tobacco plc extended its share buyback programme by a further £200 million, taking the total amount to be repurchased by 31 December 2025 to £1,1 billion. The extended programme is being funded using the net proceeds of the block trade of shares in ITC to institutional investors. This week the company repurchased a further 602,401 shares at an average price of £41.38 per share for an aggregate £24,93 million.
During the period 1 to 5 September 2025, Prosus repurchased a further 1,183,810 Prosus shares for an aggregate €61,66 million and Naspers, a further 98,781 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R564,4 million.
During the week four companies issued or withdrew a cautionary notice: Copper 360, Tongaat Hulett, PSV and Mantengu.
Janngo Capital has invested an undisclosed sum in Jobzyn, a Moroccan startup that uses artificial intelligence to transform the recruitment process. The platform combines automation, transparency, and AI to help companies find the right talent while helping candidates make better career decisions.
WaterEquity has made its first investment from the Water & Climate Resilience Fund, committing US$5 million to Savant Group, the parent company of Kenya’s SunCulture. SunCulture’s solar-powered water pumps offer an affordable alternative to diesel and manual water pumps. Designed for irrigation, the pumps are also used by more than 90% of customers to access groundwater for drinking, cooking, and cleaning – helping rural households meet daily water needs more reliably, efficiently, and sustainably. WaterEquity’s investment will enable SunCulture to scale its operations and deepen its impact – aiming to expand water access to millions of farmers and their families in rural Africa.
ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP), a pan-African developer and operator of integrated industrial zones, announced the successful completion of US$700 million capital raise. The raise will see Vision Invest, a Saudi Arabian infrastructure investor and developer, join existing institutional shareholders, Africa Finance Corporation, Equitane and the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the development impact platform of Afreximbank. ATISE IIP was founded in Ghana in 2010 and has now expanded to more than 14 countries across Africa, deploying nearly US$2 billion in infrastructure and enabling over 50,000 jobs. The platform focuses on creating local value through the transformation of raw materials and import substitution.
International Lithium Corp (ILC) has acquired an option from Lepidico (Canada) to buy 100% of the shares of Lepidico (Mauritius) on a debt-free basis for consideration of C$975,000 plus certain payments in the future that are contingent on and linked to various possible receipts by Lepidico Canada. Lepidico Mauritius in turn owns 80% of Lepidico Chemicals Namibia which owns the Karibib Lithium, Rubidium and Cesium project in Namibia. The Karibib Project comprises two areas near Karibib, Namibia, with fully permitted mining licences known as Rubicon and Helikon along with an Exclusive Prospecting Licence EPL5439 for an adjacent area.
Mezzanine finance fund manager, Vantage Capital, has fully exited its investment in Equity Invest, a Moroccan group comprising six companies operating across various segments of the information technology space. The group’s business lines include electronic security, audiovisual multimedia systems, renewable energy, digital payments, e-commerce and hospital management software. Vantage provided Equity Invest with an €8 million mezzanine finance facility in October 2019. The funding enabled the founder, Mr. Ali Bettahi, to secure a controlling stake in one of the group’s flagship subsidiaries, Unisystem Group, by acquiring the shares that were held by a private equity investor. Under Mr. Bettahi’s ownership and with Vantage’s strategic support, the group has consolidated its position in Morocco and also expanded into new markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
Helios Investment Partners has received preliminary approval, by the board of Telecom Egypt, of Helios’ binding offer to acquire a stake ranging from approximately 75% to 80% in a subsidiary that will own the Regional Data Hub (RDH) data centre assets of Telecom Egypt. The offer values 100% the RDH on a debt-free, cash-free basis at US$230 million, which could reach US$260 million subject to the achievement of certain KPIs. The RDH is a multi-phase data centre campus in Cairo. The first phase was launched in 2021 and provides approximately 2.5 MW of IT load; it reached full utilization within a year, and achieved multiple Uptime Institute Tier III certifications. RDH2 is designed for approximately 4.6 MW, received Uptime Institute Tier III Design Certification in November 2024, and is registered for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) programme.
Nigeria’s Husk Power Systems has secured a ₦5 billion revolving, local currency debt facility from United Capital Infrastructure Fund (UCIF). The revolving facility is the first Naira-denominated debt instrument of its kind. The revolving loan has a tenure of 10 years, during which Husk expects to redeploy the capital twice. Initial deployments will be used to build out Husk’s standalone minigrid pipeline in Nigeria, with expansion plans to include interconnected minigrids (IMGs) and commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects.
South Africa’s HOSTAFRICA has entered the Tanzania market with the acquisition of Tanzanian web hosting company, Zesha for an undisclosed sum. Since its founding in 2016, HOSTAFRICA has established a strong presence in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. Tanzania becomes the fifth country in HOSTAFRICA’s regional network.
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