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This episode covers:
Italtile had a better second half as expected, but new risks have emerged.
ADvTECH and STADIO have shown us that private education can be lucrative, provided the business model is right.
Harmony got its gold production sorted at exactly the right time.
Get the latest recap of JSE news in the Ghost Wrap podcast, brought to you by Mazars:
BHP is such a good example of how mining cycles play out (JSE: BHG)
The bumper profits of 2022 are now a distant memory
Mining cycles are wild things. We can see this quite clearly at BHP, where diluted headline earnings fell from $22.2 billion in 2022 to $13 billion in 2023 and then $9.9 billion in 2024. That’s quite the drop, which is why mining cycles are only for those with strong stomachs.
The shape for EBITDA is similar other than in the latest year, with underlying EBITDA decreasing from $40.6 billion to $28 billion and then up to $29 billion in the latest period. You can see that the EBITDA vs. headline earnings disconnect happened in 2024. One of the reasons for the gap is that net debt has increased from $333 million in 2022 to $9.1 billion in 2024, at a time when interest rates are much higher. Remember, EBITDA is a measure of earnings before interest costs – in fact, that’s where the first part of the acronym comes from!
Looking at free cash flow for total operations, this dropped from $25 billion in 2022 to $5.6 billion in 2023 and then increased to $11.9 billion in 2024. In a capex-heavy business model, free cash flow tends to have far more volatility than earnings.
In a group as diversified as BHP, we need to look deeper to see what’s really going on in the major commodities produced by the group.
In the copper operations, we find a promising story of EBITDA up by 29% and underlying return on capital employed of 13%. They expect to deliver 4% growth in production in the coming year after two years of 9% growth.
In iron ore, EBITDA was up 13% and return on capital employed was a meaty 61%. This is the joy of owning the lowest cost major iron ore producer globally in the form of Western Australia Iron Ore.
Coal EBITDA was down 54% but is thankfully a smaller part of the group. Return on capital employed was 19%, which is still decent.
In terms of outlook, BHP flags major uncertainty around China – no surprise there. They also note India as a bright spot for commodities, with significant growth there.
Brimstone’s intrinsic NAV has gone backwards since December (JSE: BRT)
In an investment holding company, this is the key metric
Investment holding companies tend to recognise some investments as associates and others as subsidiaries, leading to all kinds of weirdness in the accounting. I prefer to look past all of that and focus on net asset value (NAV) per share, as this tells you whether the investment portfolio went up or down in value.
Looking on a per share basis is also important as it takes into account any share repurchasing activity, which is value accretive when the share price trades below NAV – as it literally always does. It’s therefore good to see that Brimstone reduced debt and executed share repurchases in this period.
Still, the intrinsic NAV per share fell 5.7% from December 2023 to June 2024, coming in at R11.436 per share. Brimstone trades at R5.70, so there’s the discount I was talking about. The biggest problem has been Sea Harvest, where the share price has been under pressure. You’ll find the results from that company further down, as Sea Harvest is also listed.
Master Drilling has flat profits – but watch those impairments (JSE: MDI)
You can’t always ignore the stuff in EPS rather than HEPS
The most common difference between Earnings Per Share (EPS) and Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS) is that EPS is net of impairments and HEPS is not. An impairment is based on an assessment of the value that can still be derived from an asset. If that value is lower than the carrying amount on the balance sheet, an impairment or write-down must be recognised.
Sometimes, impairments aren’t very important. They often relate to assets that probably should’ve already been impaired a while ago. At Master Drilling though, the impairments in this period caught my eye as they relate to reverse circulation and mobile tunnelboring equipment – assets that are important sources of revenue. Due to uncertainty in the broader market, they’ve recognised a vast impairment in this period of $13.3 million.
Above all else, this is a reminder of the technological and market risks facing Master Drilling. If these impairments become a regular feature at the company, then it negatively impacts the business case. With 55% of capex on expansion and 45% on sustaining the existing fleet, they are constantly adding to the equipment and taking a view on what the demand for it might be.
The company reports in US dollars and revenue is up 17.3% in that currency, so it was a strong period aside from the impairments. Alas, increases in operating expenses ate up pretty much all the uplift in gross profit, with higher finance costs adding to the pain. Measured in US dollars, HEPS fell by 3.2%. Measured in rand, HEPS fell only 0.5%.
To add to the difficulties in interpreting this result, net cash from operating activities more than doubled from $12.2 million to $27.7 million. Master Drilling doesn’t pay an interim dividend, so we will have to wait for the full year results to see how the cash picture translates into distributions to shareholders.
Some signs of life at Pick n Pay (JSE: PIK)
Oddly, the franchise stores are now underperforming corporate-owned stores
Pick n Pay has raised capital from the market and now needs to deliver the turnaround strategy. They have their work cut out for them, especially with a gorilla like Shoprite in the room. Still, there are some signs of improvement coming through.
You won’t see much good news in the 26 weeks to 25 August unfortunately, with a trading statement noting that HEPS will be at least 20% lower for the period. The benefit to the balance sheet of the rights issue will only start to be felt in the second half of the year, as the capital was raised recently. This is why net finance charges are R180 million higher year-on-year. As expected, Boxer has grown headline earnings for the period and the troubles at Pick n Pay have more than offset that growth.
One of the problems is that gross margin is under pressure, as they’ve had to be aggressive on price to win shoppers back and compete against the likes of Shoprite. The diesel savings from lack of load shedding have been reinvested in price. I’ve written a few times this year that Eskom gave Pick n Pay a get-out-of-jail card this year. Had load shedding still been in place, I genuinely am not sure how they would save this thing.
To deliver a better full year result, they are expecting a much better performance from Pick n Pay. In the 21 weeks to 21 July 2024, they could only manage like-for-like growth in PnP SA Supermarkets of 2.0%. This excludes standalone clothing stores. Company-owned supermarkets grew 3.6% and franchise supermarkets were down 0.8%, a surprising underperformance from the franchise business. These are still really poor numbers, especially vs. a weak base. Boxer grew 13.5% overall and 9.5% on a like-for-like basis, showing us what a successful retail format can do.
In case you’re curious, standalone clothing stores grew 10.3% overall but only 0.7% on a like-for-like basis.
I think that a turnaround of Pick n Pay, if it ever really happens, will be harder and take longer than most people expect. It’s extremely tough to get this right.
Redefine has made the capital markets day presentation available (JSE: RDF)
If you’re interested in the property sector, this is a great document to work through
I always enjoy it when a listed company hosts a capital markets day and makes the presentation available to everyone. The Redefine presentation is incredibly detailed and tells the story of the evolution of the portfolio over the past few years.
It also has gems like this slide, which surely wins an honesty award (and gives great insight into the office market):
If you can make the time to just flick through the presentation, I guarantee you’ll learn something new. You’ll find it here.
Sasfin has managed to pull off the acceptances condition (JSE: SFN)
The biggest hurdle to the deal is now out the way
The offer of R30 per share to Sasfin shareholders came with an unusual condition that holders of no more than 10% of shares in Sasfin can accept the offer in order for it to be valid. In other words, holders of 90% need to agree to hold the shares into a private environment.
Sasfin managed to get it right, with irrevocable undertakings from holders of more than 90% of shares that they will not accept the offer, thereby meeting the condition and allowing the deal to continue.
The next step is that Unitas and Wipfin as the take-private partners will subscribe for shares in Sasfin Wealth. This will allow Sasfin Wealth to fund the offer being made to shareholders in Sasfin.
A circular will be distributed to shareholders in due course.
Also, the international revenue mix is considerably higher
Sea Harvest has released results for the six months to June 2024. Revenue was only 3% higher, so that’s not a great start. International revenue is now 53% of the total, up significantly from 45% in the comparable period.
Thankfully, gross profit was up 22% as gross margin moved from 24% to 29%. Operating profit was up 23%, yet earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was only 6% higher.
We then get to the uncomfortable numbers, dragged down by higher net finance costs (up from R104 million to R128 million) and taxes (up from R48.5 million to R60.7 million). This resulted in attributable profit after tax dropping by 17% and headline earnings decreasing by 32%.
To add to the negative move for shareholders, Sea Harvest has more shares in issue than before and hence HEPS fell by 36%. Not a great outcome at all.
Looking ahead, the acquisition of 100% of Terrasan’s pelagics business and 63.07% of Terrasan’s abalone business closed on 14 May, so that should be a major contributor to the coming year provided things improve in the abalone market in particular. They need it, as catch volumes in the hake business in South Africa have been under pressure, leading to the relatively higher contribution from international sources than before.
The share price is down 15.9% over the past year.
Stor-Age still has a growth story to tell (JSE: SSS)
If only the valuation wasn’t so demanding
Stor-Age is a solid REIT and the market knows it, which is why it trades on a yield of just 8.4%. On such a fully priced yield (remember that a low yield means a higher share price), there hasn’t been much share price growth for investors. Over three years, the price is only up 2%!
There’s not much growth in the mature side of the business, but things are still in the green. In the owned portfolio, occupancies are up 2.8% year-on-year for the four months to July. Although the South African portfolio has seen occupancies fall since March i.e. a year-to-date view, this is largely due to seasonality and they expect things to pick up after winter. This is why the year-on-year view is so important. In the UK, occupancies were up 4.7% year-on-year vs. 2.3% in South Africa, so they are growing quickly in that market.
We do need to dig deeper though, as there are other important metrics. In same-store occupancy in the UK joint venture portfolio for example, occupancies are down 1.2% year-on-year. They have huge room for ongoing expansion of the footprint though, as we can see in the total growth in occupancies in the UK joint venture portfolio of 13.7%.
All of these occupancy growth rates are based on square metres i.e. actual metres occupied, not occupancy as a percentage of total space.
Of critical importance is the growth in rental rates. This is the other part of the growth algorithm along with the amount of occupied space. They have achieved 8.4% growth year-on-year in South Africa and 1.9% in the UK on the same basis. You can see how inflation has started calming down in the UK.
Another crucial part of the investment thesis is that the acquisition and development pipeline remains extensive.
In South Africa, they recently acquired Extra Attic in Airport Industria, Cape Town for R73 million. The developments of the Kramerville and Century City properties were recently completed. In Sunningdale in Cape Town, they are enjoying the explosive growth in the area and the property that was completed in 2021 has delivered a predictably strong performance. To squeeze more juice out of the area, they’ve agreed with Garden Cities to acquire another hectare of land adjacent to the existing property. Development on that land in only in the planning phase at this stage.
In the UK, there are two major developments underway with the joint venture partners. Interestingly, Stor-Age reduced its shareholding in one of the developments by selling shares and using the proceeds to fund the proportionate share of the development. In other words, they opted not to send further capital to the UK to fund the development.
In further news on the balance sheet and dividend strategy, Stor-Age has received strong shareholder support to reduce the dividend payout ratio from 100% to between 90% and 95% of distributable income.
I would love to hold shares in Stor-Age again, but not at these yields. It’s literally priced for perfection and that’s why total returns over the past three years have been underwhelming. Great company, wrong price for me.
WBHO expects an improvement in HEPS (JSE: WBO)
The trading statement is light on details, but at least earnings are up
Construction group WBHO has released a trading statement for the year ended June. The great news is that HEPS is up by between 10% and 20% for continuing operations, coming in at between R18.73 and R20.44 per share. For total operations, it’s up by between 25% and 35% at a range of R18.94 to R20.45.
They haven’t given any further details at this stage, other than confirmation that results are due on 10 September.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
Stephen Koseff has sold more shares in Investec (JSE: INL | JSE: INP), this time to the value of £544k.
An associate of a director of Brait (JSE: BAT) bought shares in the company worth nearly R2.2 million. Separately, Titan Premier Investments (the vehicle linked to Christo Wiese) bought shares worth just over R2 million.
Andre van der Veer (not Andre van der Veen of A2X fame as I initially thought) and his wife bought shares in NEPI Rockcastle (JSE: NRP) worth R368k.
A non-executive director of Hammerson (JSE: HMN) bought shares worth £8.5k.
The family trust of a director of a major subsidiary of RFG Foods (JSE: RFG) sold shares in the company worth R37k.
Vodacom’s (JSE: VOD) court battle around the Please Call Me matter continues, with the Constitutional Court agreeing to hear the company’s application for leave to appeal in the matter in tandem with its appeal against the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment. It all comes back to the amount that should be paid to Kenneth Nkosana Makate, with the Vodacom CEO having offered R47 million and Makate fighting for more in court.
Lighthouse Properties (JSE: LTE) has confirmed that the scrip distribution reference price is a 3% discount to the spot price on 26 August, so they are providing a small incentive to shareholders who choose to receive shares rather than cash.
Insimbi Industrial Holdings (JSE: ISB) released a trading statement noting that HEPS will be down by at least 20%. That’s the bare minimum disclosure required by the JSE, so it’s anyone’s guess how bad it could be. This is for the six months to August, so the period isn’t even over yet. Buckle up!
There’s a significant recovery at Workforce Holdings (JSE: WKF), where HEPS has jumped from 1.7 cents to between 12.43 cents and 12.77 cents for the six months to June. We don’t need to bother with noting the percentage move on a jump like that! It’s more important to go back and compare this to previous years. Sure enough, HEPS for the six months to June 2022 was 14.6 cents, so this performance is still not a full recovery to previous levels after a terrible time in 2023.
Jubilee Metals (JSE: JBL) has secured a private power purchase agreement in Zambia. The counterparty is independent solar and hydro power producer Lunsemfwa Hydro Power Company, with the deal designed to meet the total power needs of Roan and Sable. There’s also room for expansion, with discounted rates locked in for a further 10MW of solar power if Jubilee needs it. Roan has previously been impacted by power shortages, so they are taking advantage of a decision by the Zambian government to allow the private sector to provide power.
Southern Palladium (JSE: SDL) has announced that the combined UG2 and Merensky Reef Mineral Resource is now 35% up from the previous estimate. Two separate independent consultants have audited the mineral resources data. The pre-feasibility study is underway and scheduled for release in Q4 of this year.
Vunani (JSE: VUN) renewed its cautionary announcement regarding the potential disposal of a minority shareholding in a subsidiary. They haven’t indicated which subsidiary and there’s still no guarantee that a deal will go ahead.
There’s truly never a dull moment at Trustco (JSE: TTO), with the latest being the discovery of an “exceptional diamond” by Meya Mining, in which Trustco has a 19.5% interest. Long story short, they found a 391.45 carat diamond, which isn’t the biggest ever found in the region (that honour belongs to a 770-carat diamond found in 1945), but is certainly a large and very economically helpful diamond. Trustco flags that in its valuation of the asset going forward, they may look to take into account the number of exceptional finds in the area. Like I said: never a dull moment.
Reinet Investments (JSE: RNI) announced that the proposed dividend of €0.35 per share was approved by shareholders. The exchange rate to rand will be announced in due course.
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ADvTECH signs off on another strong period (JSE: ADH)
These numbers look great
ADvTECH has released results for the six months to June 2024 and there’s a lot to feel good about. Revenue is up 9%, operating profit increased by 15% and HEPS put in a 16% increase. When you’re looking for your equity investments to deliver real growth i.e. ahead of inflation, these are the types of numbers you want to see.
The interim dividend of 38 cents per share is 26.7% up on the prior year, so there’s a bump in the payout ratio as well.
Perhaps best of all, operating margins have increased in each of the underlying divisions. Schools Rest of Africa is quite the story, with operating margin up 400 basis points to 28.7%. That’s higher than Tertiary at 25.8%, Schools South Africa at 20.3% and the relative ugly duckling in the group, Resourcing at 6.3%.
I think they would unlock an even better valuation multiple if they sold the Resourcing business and made themselves a pure-play education business.
Harmony expects HEPS to more than double (JSE: HAR)
Some of this is a weak base, but well done to them for improving when it mattered
The gold sector has dished up remarkable variability in earnings performance this year. If you haven’t seen it before, this has been a great time to learn that the miners and the commodity don’t always perform equally. In fact, they rarely do.
Harmony has released a trading statement for the year ended June that reflects an expected increase in HEPS of at least 100%. In other words, it will at least double!
We will only get full details when results are released on 5 September. The delay is due to auditors needing to complete their work related to an undeveloped property. In the meantime, we know that production was 6% higher and ahead of guidance, supported by higher recovered grades. All-in sustaining costs increased by 1%, so you can quickly see how margins opened up and profitability jumped.
It’s not all perfect harmony though, with an impairment of R2.8 billion at Target North based on mineral resource estimates that suggest a lower recoverable amount vs. the carrying amount in Harmony’s books.
With a market cap of R117 billion and a share price that is up nearly 150% in the past 12 months, I don’t think investors will pay too much attention to that impairment.
Italtile has flagged a dangerous competitive environment (JSE: ITE)
The market doesn’t seem to care, based on recent share price momentum
With GNU-phoria having found its way into Italtile along with many other local stocks, the share price is up 36% over 90 days. Despite Italtile releasing some tough numbers and even tougher commentary early in the morning on Monday, there was no stopping the positive momentum.
With flat system-wide turnover, trading profit down 11% and HEPS down 7%, there’s not much to feel good about here. The ordinary dividend is down 8% for the year to June as well.
The market seems to be clinging to the second half performance at Italtile, which was better than the first half but by no means good yet. Trading profit for the second half was still slightly down year-on-year.
I would be cautious here, as Italtile has noted the emergence of aggressive new competitors and a situation where manufacturing capacity far exceeds demand. Manufacturing businesses have high fixed overhead structures, so depressed volumes lead to higher overhead absorption per unit and a substantial negative impact on profitability. Although I’m now sitting long Cashbuild in my portfolio, they don’t have the same manufacturing exposure that Italtile does. Also, perhaps even more importantly, the Cashbuild share price had been sold off sharply before I climbed in, having now made a full recovery and delivered me a delightful little return.
Based on how much cash there is on the balance sheet (up 76%), Italtile has declared a special dividend of 78 cents, which works out to 6% of the current share price. The total dividend is thus 127 cents. That’s clearly not the sustainable yield though. It’s interesting to note the confidence to pay this dividend when there is still so much uncertainty in the market. On one hand they are telling the market to be careful of lost market share and essentially a price war in the local market, while on the other they are paying out excess cash.
There’s also an interesting note around the energy requirements at the Ceramic business. Currently, 70% of energy requirements are provided by Sasol as the primary supplier of imported piped natural gas. Sasol will only be able to supply this energy until June 2027, so Italtile is looking for alternatives like natural gas and coal-based synthetic gas.
STADIO’s numbers are heading the right way (JSE: SDO)
The shape of the income statement looks good as well
STADIO has released results for the six months to June and they look strong. Right at the top, we find that student numbers increased 10%, revenue was up 16% (so pricing increased were also achieved) and EBITDA grew by 12%. Although there’s a bit of EBITDA margin pressure there (as the percentage growth is lower than revenue growth), core HEPS was up 20% and there’s much to celebrate.
Within these numbers, the acquisition of an additional 15.4% in Milpark Education is relevant. The non-controlling interest there is down from 31.5% to 16.14%, so STADIO is close to owning the entire thing now.
STADIO doesn’t pay an interim dividend, so don’t be shocked to see that there isn’t one this year either. With these numbers, there is seemingly a strong probability of an annual dividend. With no external debt at all, the strength of the balance sheet would certainly support a dividend.
Interestingly, there’s a resurgence in contact learning as things have truly normalised after the pandemic. Contact learning numbers grew by 9%, having grown just 3% in the prior year.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
The family trust of a director of a major subsidiary of RFG Foods (JSE: RFG) sold shares worth R1.33 million.
A director of a major subsidiary of Vodacom (JSE: VOD) sold shares worth R564k.
Burstone Group (JSE: BTN) has renewed its cautionary announcement around a potential strategic partnership with funds advised by Blackstone Europe. There is still no certainty at this stage that a transaction will be concluded, hence the need for caution.
Lighthouse (JSE: LTE) has disposed of another R1.45 billion worth of shares in Hammerson (JSE: HMN)
Gold Fields (JSE: GFI) announced that Phillip Murnane has been appointed as CFO. He takes over from Alex Dall, who has been interim CFO since 1 May 2024 after the departure of Paul Schmidt.
Salungano Group (JSE: SLG) renewed the cautionary announcement related to Keaton Mining, where the hearing date for the application for leave to appeal against the judgment that dismissed the business rescue application is still being awaited.
Chrometco (JSE: CMO) has renewed its cautionary announcement regarding a material subsidiary. The stock is suspended from trading, so it’s not like anyone has the temptation to trade it anyway.
Get the latest recap of JSE news in the Ghost Wrap podcast, brought to you by Mazars:
African Rainbow Minerals suffers a sharp drop in earnings (JSE: ARI)
PGM and thermal coal prices dragged earnings lower
African Rainbow Minerals has released a trading statement for the year ended June 2024. HEPS took a proper knock, down by between 40% and 50%. A drop of this extent isn’t unusual in the mining sector at the moment, as some commodities have come off severely in price.
PGMs and thermal coal were the culprits for African Rainbow Minerals, with higher average realised iron ore export prices helping to mitigate some of the pain. Detailed results are due on 6 September, so we will get all the insights soon.
Despite the decline in earnings, the share price is surprisingly flat over 1 year – admittedly with plenty of volatility along the way.
Alphamin has released its detailed interim financials (JSE: APH)
We already knew from previous announcements that Q2 was a record for tin production
With Alphamin on such a growth path, it’s not surprising to see that the management team includes quarter-on-quarter comparisons as well as year-on-year. Typically only high growth companies will compare quarters sequentially, rather than just year-on-year.
The growth rate over the past year is immense, with revenue up 37% year-on-year for the second quarter and operating profit up 63%. Net profit over that period increased by 27%.
If we compare the second quarter to the first quarter, then revenue dipped 5% but operating profit was up 5%. After various other moves, including some major tax line items, net profit was down 10% quarter-on-quarter. It may be high growth, but very few companies can grow every single quarter.
With Q2 as a record for production, it might puzzle you that revenue dipped from Q1 to Q2. The clue is in the word “production” which isn’t the same as tin sold. They actually experienced a 21% drop in sales vs. a 28% increase in production, so they will need to play catch-up there. If they are lucky, tin prices will stay elevated, as the average tin price was up 20% quarter-on-quarter and 26% year-on-year.
The company expects tin sales in Q3 to exceed tin production by around 500 tonnes, which would recover more than half of the differential between production and sales in Q2.
Alphamin’s share price is up 15% over the past 12 months and 23% year-to-date.
A rough day for Gold Fields shareholders (JSE: GFI)
An upward move in the dividend payout ratio couldn’t stop the bleeding in the share price
The gold miners have been such a mixed bag recently, despite the more appealing gold price. This is a good lesson on the volatility when you buy the miners rather than the commodity itself, as plenty can go wrong on the production side. We’ve seen that play out at Gold Fields, where production for the six months to June 2024 is down by 20% year-on-year. Ouch.
When volumes drop like this, even for reasons outside of the company’s control (like the weather), there’s inevitably a major knock-on impact for unit costs. Mining has substantial fixed costs, so lower production volumes mean higher overhead absorption on a per-unit basis. All-in costs were up 47% to $2,060/oz, so the 14.7% increase in the dollar gold price was ruined by the jump in costs of production.
The net impact is that HEPS from continuing operations fell by a rather ugly 26.5%, which certainly isn’t what you expect to see when the gold price has moved higher. The interim dividend per share is only 7.7% lower as the payout ratio has been moved from 30% of normalised earnings to 40% of normalised earnings. This is a classic example of a company trying to use the headroom in the payout ratio to soften the blow of poor earnings. The market is usually smarter than that.
The balance sheet also has an unfortunate story to tell, with a free cash outflow for the period of $58 million vs. an inflow of $140 million in the comparable period. Net debt has increased by $129 million, admittedly including lease liabilities. If we exclude them, then net debt increased by $91 million, or 14.5%.
The first half of the year was so disappointing that full year guidance is being reduced, which is probably what gave the market a reason to take the share price 7.8% lower on the day. Although guidance has been moderated, they do still expect the second half to be much better than the first half. There are some uncertainties around this though, like the ramp-up at Salares Norte and the potential for further delays.
Despite these numbers, the share price is still up 13.4% over the past 12 months. Traders may find some interesting volatility in this chart to consider:
Port volumes are up, but Grindrod’s results are flat (JSE: GND)
The Port and Terminals segment is just one part of the group
The Grindrod investment case gets a lot of positive attention based on the Port and Terminals segment, with a 22% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in port volumes over three years and a 12% CAGR in terminal volumes. In the latest period being the six months to June, Richards Bay bounced back with 20% growth in volumes, adding to another 18% growth from the Port of Maputo. This has driven substantial growth in profit attributable to ordinary shareholders from the Port and Terminals segment of 61.5%.
As you can see from this table, the Port and Terminals business is unfortunately just one part of the group story and was certainly the highlight in this period:
The Logistics segment struggled in this period, although there was a bright spot in the form of the ships agency and clearing and forwarding businesses. As for container handing, that was impacted by broader logistical constraints in the market. The rail business has also been through quite a bit, with that structural reorganisation now complete. The less said about the private equity and property segment, the better.
When it comes to HEPS, Grindrod went backwards slightly from 73 cents to 72.1 cents. The interim dividend took far more of a knock, down from 34.4 cents to 23.0 cents as the payout ratio was decreased.
The share price fell 4% on the day of this news. That’s just a minor blip in the recent growth trajectory though, with the share price up a substantial 45% in the past 12 months.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
There’s yet more selling by a member of the founding family of Famous Brands (JSE: FBR), this time to the value of R11.4 million.
Aside from some selling related to share awards by executives at Investec (JSE: INL | JSE: INP), there’s a sale by Stephen Koseff of £530k that is worth taking note of.
A Dis-Chem (JSE: DCP) prescribed officer has been selling shares for a while now and the selling has continued, with R4.9 million as the latest tranche.
A director of Sasol (JSE: SOL) bought shares worth R286k.
Property group Putprop (JSE: PPR) released a trading statement reflecting a drop in HEPS of between 40.5% and 60.5%. They didn’t give any further details, with results expected to be released on 30 August.
There’s an unusual shuffling of chairs at Texton (JSE: TEX), with current CEO Pienaar Welleman moving into the CFO role and current COO Jonathan Rens taking the CEO role.
Trustco (JSE: TTO) has decided to walk away from its commercial banking business, with a decision to return its banking licence to Bank of Namibia for cancellation. This is less than 1% of Trustco’s total investments, so the operations are probably more of a pain than they are worth.
For all things, from share price performances to TikTok trends, there is a universal truth: the pendulum swings. After the self-indulgent lunacy of “Brat Summer” in July, August was marked by the counterpointing “demure” trend, with everyone from influencers to brands expounding how they keep things “very cutesy, very mindful”. Got no clue what I’m talking about? Keep reading, I’ll take you through it.
And before you panic about whether this is just a tabloid post, my point here is that brands are no longer setting the trends out there. As this piece will hopefully show you, brands are now reacting to trends rather than driving them. Things have changed.
Choose your fighter
Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the truth that social media (TikTok in particular) is the petri-dish from which the world’s trends emerge. Despite being relatively new compared to other platforms, TikTok’s growth has been nothing short of extraordinary, achieving in six short years the kind of reach that Facebook and Instagram only saw after a decade. At present, the app has just over a billion regular users – meaning one in every eight people on earth. That’s not an audience to be sniffed at.
As cost per acquisition rises and consumer attention gets more scattered, brands are facing a real challenge in reaching the right decision-makers. Remember that old marketing adage about consumers needing an average of seven interactions with a brand before a purchase is made? I think we can safely assume that that average has continued to move up with every new social media platform’s introduction.
Millennials, who make up a significant chunk of the TikTok community (60% of the platform’s audience, in fact), are a key group to target. Most millennial TikTok users are now juggling adult responsibilities like household grocery shopping, making them the main decision-makers in many households.
With an estimated $360 billion in global disposable income, Gen Z is another must-win audience. The “born on the internet” generation, Gen Z users are 1.4x more likely to discover new brands and products on TikTok and 1.7x more likely to create tutorials about a product after buying it. This makes TikTok a golden opportunity for brands to tap into Gen Z’s love for discovering, participating, and influencing, driving both product awareness and consideration.
With all these stats considered, it seems like a no-brainer for any brand worth their salt to be chasing TikTok fame – but of course it can’t be that easy. TikTok isn’t your typical social media platform. Its quirky, trend-driven, fast-paced nature means that traditional ads or sponsored content might not cut it. But those who lean into what works on TikTok stand to win eyeballs and brand clout for their efforts.
Consider Unilever as a case study. #CleanTok – the TikTok community for cleaning content – is thriving. With over 97 billion views, it’s become the go-to place for sharing life hacks, learning pro tips, and discovering proven product recommendations. Unilever, whose homecare category tends to make up over half of annual turnover, recognised the potential of this engaged community. Partnering with TikTok, they launched #CleanTok content to make cleaning feel more like entertainment than a chore. And it’s working: 54% of users have purchased a household product after seeing it on the platform.
That’s the kind of ROI that gets marketers salivating, which explains why everyone is trying to get a slice of this pie.
In the blue corner: Charlie XCX
Although it was a thing in the middle of South Africa’s cold season, Brat Summer is an idea that transcends mere weather. It all started with the release of pop singer Charli XCX’s latest album, Brat, which has taken the charts by storm. The album, with its lime green cover and sans serif font – design elements that you’ve no doubt seen everywhere lately and wondered why – is best described as an embrace of a hot-mess aesthetic. It prioritises club culture at its core but still hides introspective lyrics on ageing, womanhood, grief, and anxiety between the beats. Taking its cues from the album, Brat Summer mixes the carefree, grungy, and hedonistic vibes of the 80s and 90s with that millennial and Gen Z edge (and angst). Brat Summer is about knowing that the world is a messed up place and we’re all a little traumatised but we’re doing our best and we’re managing to have fun. As Charli herself puts it, “It’s very honest, it’s very blunt, it’s a little bit volatile… It’s brat, you’re brat, that’s brat.”
Editor’s note: having never even heard of Charli XCX before reading this article, our resident ghost is now feeling old.
Unsurprisingly, Brat Summer became the trend to chase for about eight weeks. Perhaps my favourite moment in this whole crazy ride was when presidential contender Kamala Harris’s PR team decided to “brat-code” her official X account with a neon-green cover image and that unmistakable font. This of course followed on the heels of Charli XCX stating that Kamala Harris “IS brat” – high praise that was no doubt met with cheers of joy by the young left.
But Harris isn’t the only one who got a piece of Brat Summer. AirBaltic acted quickly and went all-in by temporarily rebranding themselves as AirBrat, playing off their already-existing signature lime green look. The move paid off, with over 400,000 views on TikTok. In case this TikTok player confuses you, you have to click the replay button in the bottom left:
And just as Brat Summer apparently reached its climax, it was ushered out by a new contender: the word “demure”. It all started with this video by creator Jules Lebron, which went live in the first week of August:
While the jury is still out about what exactly the secret ingredient is that led to its rapid rise in popularity, Jules’ video went viral seemingly overnight. Less than a month later, she’s now made dozens of viral TikToks about being demure – with the most-watched one sitting at a cool 10.7 million views.
Jules talks about being “mindful,” “cutesy,” “sweetsy,” and “considerate,” but her videos are far from serious critiques. Instead, she often makes fun of herself. For example, she once went to work wearing bold green-glitter makeup – not exactly “demure.” In another video, she claims she doesn’t drink or party, only to follow it with footage of herself, clearly tipsy, muttering “very demure” while searching for her hotel room after a wild night in Las Vegas.
Making its way to celebrities’ social media feeds, the trend has since prompted big names and brands to showcase their demureness and hop on the “demure” bandwagon.
For me, the key takeaway is that the days of brands and celebrities being the tastemakers in the world are nearing their end. With so many creators contributing original content to social media platforms like TikTok every day, and each one of their ideas having the potential to go viral any minute, it almost doesn’t make sense for a brand to try to swim against the current of attention. It may well be far easier, and – when done right – far more rewarding to incorporate what’s already trending, instead of trying to set the trend.
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.
Get the latest recap of JSE news in the Ghost Wrap podcast, brought to you by Mazars:
Margins under pressure at Adcock, but HEPS looks alright (JSE: AIP)
The final dividend per share has also shown some growth
In Adcock Ingram’s business, margins aren’t easy to manage. Apart from margin mix and how growth in different categories can lead to structural changes in group margin, there are also other issues like regulated prices for medicine. Even where revenue shows growth, gross profit may not follow suit.
This has been the case for the year ended June, where revenue was up 6% and gross profit was just 1% higher, which means gross profit margin fell. Despite a 6% drop in operating profit, they still managed to show 10% growth in HEPS to 616.6 cents. This is the power of share repurchases, particularly when a share trades at low multiples. Headline earnings was only up by 3.5%, yet on a per-share basis this jumps to 10% thanks to the sheer number of shares repurchased in the past year.
The same positive effect is seen on the dividend per share. The total dividend for the year is 275 cents, up 10% from 250 cents last year. The full benefit of the growth in the annual dividend is being felt in the final dividend, which jumped from 125 cents to 150 cents.
Looking at the segments, it was the Hospital segment where profit dislocated from revenue to the greatest extent. Revenue was up 8% in that segment, yet trading profit fell by 16%. As an example of a different shape elsewhere, Prescription saw revenue up 4% and trading profit up 10%. This is my point about how the mix effect can really impact the group numbers.
The market liked what it saw, with the share price ending the day 9% higher.
The bottom is hopefully in at Cashbuild (JSE: CSB)
I strongly believe that things will improve from here
After watching the Cashbuild share price come off sharply for no obvious reason in the past month, I pulled the trigger and got in at R143.65. So far, so good. I’m up around 14% in the space of a week – and that’s even after the drop in the share price after these earnings came out! Sometimes, the market gives you a gift.
You won’t understand my investment thesis on Cashbuild purely by looking at the trading statement for the 52 weeks to 25 June. HEPS will be down by between 20% and 30%, which by all accounts is awful. The point is that share prices (and thus investment returns) are based on what will happen in future, not what already happened.
There are three reasons why Cashbuild has had a torrid time: (1) very poor consumer sentiment in SA, especially for fixed property investment; (2) prioritising load shedding-related spend on homes (e.g. solar) over other projects; (3) high interest rates. Two of the three problems have improved dramatically in recent months and interest rates are going to start dropping as well.
This is why I believe that the worst is now behind Cashbuild and I’ve positioned myself accordingly. The solar providers had their time in the sun, literally. It’s time for people to start adding on rooms and doing new floors again.
Powerfleet’s results are out in the wild (JSE: PWR)
After some hurdles along the way, the first quarterly results after the MiX Telematics deal are available
Powerfleet’s life as a merged company didn’t get off to the easiest start, with the SEC conducting a review of the accounting methods applied to the business combination with MiX Telematics. With the review complete, Powerfleet has been able to file its quarterly results and can now breathe a sigh of relief.
This results covers the three months to June, which is the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year. For now, they’ve only issued a press release with the highlights of the quarter. The detailed 10-Q filing hasn’t been made available yet, but it looks like it should still come out this week based on previous communication from the company.
For now, we know that revenue is up 10.2%. Prior year comparison numbers have been adjusted for the merger, so that’s a real metric that is useful to investors. Adjusted gross profit was up 9%, so there’s some margin compression there. Not so on the adjusted EBITDA line though, which jumped 52.2% thanks to cost synergies.
The merger allowed for duplicated support functions to be removed, paving the way for $8.7 million in annualised savings and a 30% increase in the sales force in coming months, funded by the reduction in overheads. The target for total cost savings is $27 million.
Just be careful of how US groups tend to report adjusted EBITDA, as they are notoriously good at reversing out expenses that South African listed companies include in HEPS. You can immediately see this when you look at Powerfleet’s adjusted EPS of precisely $0.00 for the period. Without adjustments, they reported a net loss to stockholders.
There’s a big chunk of debt on the balance sheet, so that’s not doing any favours for EBITDA to EPS conversion either, as there are interest bills to be paid.
They’ve updated full year guidance for 2025, but not in a way that is terribly useful. They simply expect to exceed the previous guidance of $300 million revenue and $60 million adjusted EBITDA, with no information on the extent to which they will exceed it.
More balance sheet news at Sibanye – this time for Keliber (JSE: SSW)
There’s been a lot of corporate news coming out of the company this year
Sibanye-Stillwater has managed to complete the full financing requirement for the Keliber lithium project, achieved through the raising of a €500 million green loan financing facility. For a transition metal located in a country like Finland, a green loan was always going to be the right option.
The Finnish state owned Export Credit Agency has guaranteed 80% of a tranche of €250 million coming from a bank. The European Investment Bank has put up €150 million. Finally, there’s a €100 million syndicated commercial bank tranche. The facilities are governed by a Green Financing Framework and they have achieved a Medium Green classification from S&P Global ratings. There’s an entire industry around this stuff, ranging from advisors and verification agents through to lenders themselves, not to mention the likes of Bank of America who acted as the green loan coordinator.
There was no shortage of demand from lenders, with the syndicated loan being oversubscribed. 7 banks eventually participated, with maturities of 7 to 8 years and variable interest rates linked to EURIBOR.
Together with previously raised equity of €250 million, this means there is enough for the total capital requirement of Keliber of around €667 million. They will now begin the construction phase to work towards production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
Little Bites:
Director dealings:
A director of NEPI Rockcastle (JSE: NRP) bought shares worth €675k.
Stephen Koseff (one of the founders and the ex-CEO) sold shares in Investec (JSE: INL | JSE: INP) worth £188k.
A director of Kumba Iron Ore (JSE: KIO) sold shares worth R881k.
A director of Orion Minerals (JSE: ORN) acquired shares in the company worth $15.3k.
An associate of two directors of Astoria Investments (JSE: ARA) entered into a CFD position on the stock worth R152k.
Bell Equipment (JSE: BEL) has confirmed that interim results will be published before 12th September, which is the date of the general meeting to vote on the all-important offer to shareholders. Mind you, they won’t beat that date by much, with a plan to release earnings on the 9th. They also made a correction to the dates of trades by concert parties, with some interesting analysis doing the rounds on X regarding the shape of Bell’s shareholder register. This deal is by no means a foregone conclusion.
There’s no luck for MAS (JSE: MAS) shareholders on the proposed restructure, which I felt was quite a clever deal with Prime Kapital that would’ve solved some of the balance sheet challenges. Sadly, the parties couldn’t reach an agreement and so the deal has been called off and the cautionary withdrawn.
Premier Group (JSE: PMR) announced that Titan Premier Investments, a major investment entity of Christo Wiese, now holds a beneficial interest in 45.6% of the shares of the company. This is because of the corporate activity related to the capital raise at Brait. The direct stake in Premier remains 31.5%.
South32 (JSE: S32) updated the market on the sale of Illawarra Metallurgical Coal, with that transaction now expected to complete on 29 August 2024.
After quite a scare, Mantengu Mining (JSE: MTU) has confirmed that it has protected its original investment value in relation to the Birca Copper Mine fiasco. Mantengu subsidiary Meerust Chrome has entered into a lease agreement and various other agreements that allow it to legally and commercially operate under the mining right. Affected employees are being hired to maintain jobs while the rest of the mess is navigated, with Birca in business rescue thanks to previously undisclosed liabilities. Mantenge is still exploring all its legal rights in this regard.
Barloworld (JSE: BAW) has renewed the bland cautionary announcement. As the name suggests, a bland cautionary has no real details about the underlying transaction being considered. In this case, all we know is that Barloworld is talking about something important with someone out there. If those talks go well, it could impact the share price. Hence, trade with caution!
Oando Plc (JSE: OAO) has very little liquidity on the local market, so the share price didn’t even react to the news of the $783 million acquisition of Nigerian Agip Oil Company being completed. The transaction is immediately cash generative and significantly increases Oando’s reserves.
There’s no liquidity at all in Globe Trade Centre (JSE: GTC), so I’ll only give the results for the six months to June a passing mention. Revenue increased 3% and funds from operations was ever so slightly higher. The loan-to-value at 48.2% is on the high side, but is at least better than 49.3% at the end of December 2023.
Economic headwinds and the sharp devaluation of the naira, has over the past two years, negatively impacted mobile operator MTN’s bottom line. The impact of the lacklustre performance of the company’s share price is problematic for the company’s soon to mature Zakhele Futhi B-BBEE scheme. The scheme launched in November 2016 subscribed for 4% of the company’s share capital at R102.80 (an effective 20% discount) and is due to mature in November 2024. However, for full settlement to be achieved the MTN share price would need to reach c.R88.00 per MTN share. Like many BEE deals of its era, the scheme is effectively underwater, projected to owe R620 million to the preference share funders and R6,1 billion to MTN. Subject to shareholder approval, MTN will extend the structure for a further three years to 2027 with the option to unwind the scheme either partially or fully during the period if conditions improve.
Argent Industrial has announced that it is to acquire Standmode and its subsidiary Mersey Container Services for £6,89 million (R159,3 million) in a move to scale its business by further diversifying its portfolio of companies and expanding internationally into the UK. Mersey manufactures modular buildings, offices and mess units which can be stacked or linked depending on requirements. The deal is a category 2 transaction and as such does not require shareholder approval.
The acquisition announced in June by York Timber of several standing timber plantations has been amended following the destruction of the Wolberg farms by a fire. The deal with Stevens Lumber Mills will be implemented excluding the affected farms at a reduced deal value of R41,36 million, previously R75 million.
Oando PLC has completed the September 2023 acquisition of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company from Italian energy company Eni. The US$783 million transaction is significant in Oando’s long-term strategy to expand its upstream operations and strengthen its position in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
In July MAS PLC released a cautionary announcement advising shareholders that it was considering a restructure proposal to simplify and achieve control of its development joint venture with Prime Kapital named PKM Development. The company this week issued a further cautionary, advising shareholders that the process relating to the proposed restructure had terminated without PKM Development and Prime Kapital reaching agreement.
Unlisted Companies
Solarise Africa, a pan-African Energy-as-a-Service company has secured a R160 million investment from Mergence Investment Managers. Solarise provides innovative and affordable solar energy solutions with a focus on delivering reliable and sustainable energy. The funding will be used to advance the deployment of Commercial and Industrial scale renewable energy solutions in South Africa.
Qatar Airways has made an equity investment into Airlink, taking a 25% stake in the local carrier as it seeks to expand its presence in Africa. For Airlink, the transaction will unlock growth by providing efficiencies of scale, increasing the airline’s capacity and expand its marketing reach. Financial details were not disclosed.
Following the resolution of the Tax Matter and the reversal of the tax provision of R794 million provided for in Coronation Fund Managers’ financial accounts, the company has declared a non-recurring gross special dividend of 153 cents per ordinary share returning R534 million to shareholders.
Several companies announced the repurchase of shares:
In line with its share buyback programme announced in March, British American Tobacco this week repurchased a further 446,617 shares at an average price of £27.78 per share for an aggregate £12,41 million.
In terms of its US$5 million general share repurchase programme announced in March 2024, Tharisa has repurchased a further 15,896 ordinary shares on the JSE at an average price of R18.99 per share and 128,016 ordinary shares on the LSE at an average price of 80.92 pence. The shares were repurchased during the period 12 – 16 August 2024.
Prosus and Naspers continued with their open-ended share repurchase programmes. During the period 12 – 16 August 2024, a further 3,465,763 Prosus shares were repurchased for an aggregate €114,18 million and a further 291,595 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R1,07 billion.
Four companies issued profit warnings this week: Master Drilling, KAP, Randgold & Exploration and Cashbuild.
Five companies issued cautionary notices this week: TeleMasters, Trematon Capital Investments, PSV, Barloworld and MAS.
Snapshot of some of the deals announced this week across the continent…
Sea Gardener, a company that uses technology to harvest premium quality Mediterranean clams, has received an undisclosed investment from Cairo-based venture capital fund, The Climate Resilient Africa Fund (CRAF).
British International Investment has committed to invest up to US$35 million towards the development of the new container port in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of an extension to its existing partnership with global ports and logistics operator, DP World. The Port of Banana will be the country’s first deepwater container port.
Gaea Foods, a potato-processing company in Kenya, has received and undisclosed debt investment from Pepea, an impact investment fund from Oxfam Novib, managed by Goodwell Investments. This is the fund’s first investment and Gaea Foods fits the Pepea mandate of “fair, green and inclusive”. The company is led by a female founder and 70% of the staff are women.
KBW Ventures has announced its first Egyptian investment – NoorNation. The Egypt-based climatech startup was founded in 2021 and was selected as the Best Green Tech Startup of the Year in Northern Africa by the Global Startup Awards in 2024. LifeBox, the firm’s flagship product, delivers clean energy and safe water to rural communities, farms and tourism businesses.
The energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa (and related legal frameworks) is experiencing some dynamic changes. It is a tough call to decide where the most exciting developments are occurring, but a few examples spring to mind.
Mauritius, where the Government has pledged to phase out coal and reach 60% renewable energy by 2030.
Or what about Kenya, which is accelerating the transition to electric vehicles by creating a framework for electric vehicle charging and battery-swapping infrastructure, while pursuing a viable carbon trading and credit market?
On the other hand, there is also Namibia, which is overhauling its energy laws and regulations, and Tanzania, which is dramatically changing the way it approaches public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the power sector.
Then there is Zambia, which recently launched its first ever integrated resource plan, and where the use of green bonds to finance renewable solar projects is on the rise.
And South Africa too, whose electricity industry has already seen a whirlwind of changes and is gearing up for more change as the country embraces competition in the electricity supply market.
Trends to watch on the energy front
These six countries are arguably at the forefront of the latest energy developments in sub-Saharan Africa and, while each jurisdiction has its own priorities and regulatory approaches, some common trends can be discerned among them.
They include the growing role of PPPs and independent power producers (IPPs), increased interest in the commercial and industrial (C&I) market, and the rise of renewable energy sources.
Paving the way for these and other developments is a raft of new legislation and regulations, some being taken through the law-making process surprisingly swiftly, signalling a sense of urgency in some governments towards achieving energy security.
In the PPP domain, Tanzania is an interesting example. A key amendment has been made to the Public Private Partnership Act, exempting certain solicited projects from the competitive bidding process. Instead, the change allows the Government to engage directly with individual private parties, which is expected to speed up the execution and delivery of PPP projects.
However, this is subject to strict conditions, urgency being one. Not only must there be an urgent need for the project for the exemption to apply, but the circumstances giving rise to the urgency must not have been foreseeable by the contracting authority. In other words, urgency cannot be manufactured to bypass the usual tender process.
Moreover, the private party concerned must either own the intellectual property rights to the key approaches or technologies required for the project, or have exclusive rights in respect of the project, with no reasonable alternative or substitute being available.
Kenya, too, is placing increased focus on PPPs in the delivery of energy infrastructure, especially in transmission and generation, where the private sector can bring expertise, innovation and capital. The country’s Public Private Partnerships Act, which came into effect in 2022, has created PPP processes that are considered quicker, more flexible and efficient, and less expensive than the previous PPP framework.
Challenges and opportunities for IPPS
Meanwhile, the IPP model is also gaining momentum across the region. In the past 12 months, there has been increased activity in Namibia by IPPs investing in solar projects for industrial use, especially in the mining sector.
Still in Namibia, there has also been an uptick in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions around the acquisition of developers and IPPs, as well as increased due diligence work in green hydrogen.
In South Africa, where the IPP model was first introduced in 2010, the IPP landscape is in for something of a shakeup. The national utility, Eskom, has implemented its new grid access rules, which change the capacity allocation from ‘first come, first served’ to ‘first ready, first served’.
This creates competitive pressure for the IPPs to complete their projects as soon as possible, but also raises questions about the bankability of the power purchase agreements that had already been signed under the previous regime.
At the same time, South Africa is enjoying an increase in the number of private-to-private IPPs that generate and sell electricity directly to commercial and industrial customers. Most of these projects involve wheeling through Eskom’s and/ or municipalities’ grids, giving rise to challenges such as the need for bilateral negotiated agreements between the IPPs, the customers and the grid operators, creating considerable contractual complexity.
Other jurisdictions experiencing growth in C&I markets are Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. The focus has been on solar projects, increasingly financed through green bonds in Zambia’s case.
As for Mauritius, the country is carrying out its ambitious plans to phase out coal and make renewables its dominant sources of electricity within the next five and a half years. The government has already set up several agencies and authorities to achieve these goals, notably the Mauritius Renewable Energy Agency and the Energy Efficiency Management Office.
Like Kenya, Mauritius is in the fast lane when it comes to promoting the use of electric vehicles and reducing carbon emissions. The island has put in place initiatives such as the Solar PV Scheme for Charging Electric Vehicles and the Carbon Neutral Industrial Sector Renewable Energy Scheme. It is also exploring renewable sources beyond solar, such as biomass, hydro and wind.
The winds of change are blowing in the energy industry in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing with them the prospects of industry renewal, sustainable development and economic growth.
Charles Mmasi and Edwin Baru are Partners and Alison Mellon is a Knowledge and Learning Lawyer in Banking and Finance | Bowmans
This article first appeared in DealMakers AFRICA, the continent’s quarterly M&A publication.
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