4Sight Holdings has flagged strong earnings (JSE: 4SI)
The share price has had a huge week
4Sight Holdings is up 25% in the past week, with a steady increase in the share price over several days in the lead up to a trading statement that came out on Friday. It’s always worrying when a share price moves a few days before the news comes out.
The news itself certainly supports a positive share price move, with HEPS up by between 25% and 35.4% for the six months to August. Detailed results will be released by the end of October.
Insimbi Industrial Holdings is still loss-making (JSE: ISB)
At least the operating performance looks better, even if HEPS doesn’t
Insimbi has been through a tough time. Aside from the obvious global issues like tariffs, there’s also been great uncertainty in the local steel market, ranging from automotive customers through to the situation at ArcelorMittal.
Against this backdrop, Insimbi’s revenue increased by 2% for the six months to August 2025 – a decent performance under the circumstances. The group has been through a fair bit of restructuring to improve the cost base, with the benefits coming through in a 65% increase in operating profit.
Alas, the bottom of the income statement is still in the red, with a loss of R8.6 million vs. R9.4 million in the prior period. HEPS was -1.30 cents vs. -1.22 cents in the comparable period.
Although cash generated from operations was sharply negative in this period, the company has noted that this was due to the end of the period being on a Sunday. Substantial amounts were received from debtors in the first week after month-end. This is perhaps something for investors to keep an eye on when the full-year results come around.
Jubilee Metals hopes to conclude the disposal of the local operations by December (JSE: JBL)
In the meantime, they’ve given an update on the chrome and PGM business in South Africa
Jubilee Metals is in the process of becoming a focused Zambian copper group. They are selling off the South African chrome and PGM business, with only two major conditions outstanding (one of which is Competition Commission approval). They have received the first tranche ($15 million) of the sale consideration and they hope to get the deal done by the end of the 2025 calendar year.
The company has given an update on the local performance in the meantime, as the deal isn’t done until all the conditions are met. For the first quarter of the new financial year, chrome concentrate production fell 11.2% year-on-year and PGM production was down 10.1%. In both cases, the cessation of a major contract is to blame for the decrease.
Labat’s pivot to “high-technology” may be an hilarious description, but it’s the right move (JSE: LAB)
The days of being a financially dicey cannabis business are behind them
I nearly spat out my coffee when I read the Labat report about their pivot to “high-technology” investments. I’m not sure if they just have a sense of humour or if that’s the description that they genuinely believe is appropriate, but it’s hard not to laugh in the context of what used to be a cannabis company.
Either way, the acquisition of Classic International Trading has made all the difference. The anchor business at Labat is SAMES (South African Micro-Electronic Systems) and the integration of the acquired businesses has clearly gone well. This success in technology has driven Labat to a decision to move away entirely from healthcare and cannabis, with a plan to dispose of this business and transfer Labat’s listing to the technology sector on the JSE.
Despite having a gazillion more shares in issue after capital raising and acquisitive activities, Labat still saw a remarkable improvement in HEPS for the year ended May 2025. The reality is that if you swing from a headline loss of R25.6 million to a headline profit of R125 million, it doesn’t matter how many shares are in issue – you at least have a pie that is worth slicing up and dividing among shareholders!
I do hope that the candid style of reporting continues, as this paragraph in the litigation section was also pretty funny: “In 1999 SAMES (“the taxpayer”) had an assessed tax loss. For some or other reason, unbeknown to the taxpayer, the South African Revenue Services (SARS), disallowed the assessed loss in the year 2000 and “created” a non-existing Income Tax liability. SARS then withheld VAT credits owed to the taxpayer and allocated it to a non-existent Income Tax (IT) “liability”. No further credits, was paid out to the taxpayer to date hereof. This had now been going on for more than 20 years.”
This is a new era for Labat. The share price is 8 cents and HEPS was 13.28 cents, so the group is on a P/E multiple of 0.6x. You won’t see that every day.
The Prosus offer for Just Eat Takeaway.com has been finalised (JSE: PRX)
Prosus will use squeeze-out provisions to get to 100%
Prosus has big plans for its platform businesses. The AI theme is visible everywhere, with the idea being to use these technologies to improve the profitability of the various groups that Prosus has invested in.
The deal for Just Eat Takeaway.com in Europe will be watched closely, as this transaction has been put together under Fabricio Bloisi’s watch as CEO. This makes it distinct from the portfolio of businesses that he inherited from the previous management team. The other reason why the market will pay plenty of attention to this integration is that Prosus will need to demonstrate the true power of AI in making these platforms more appealing, particularly in Western Europe where growth is hard to come by.
The offer has been finalised, with Prosus achieving acceptances from holders of 98.19% of shares in Just Eat Takeaway.com. Extending the acceptance period worked out well, as they locked in a further 8.06% of shares in the company. They will in any event use the standard squeeze-out provisions to get the remaining shares, so the expectation is that they will end up with 100%.
Just Eat Takeaway.com will delist on 17 November 2025.
Safari Investments is set to delist (JSE: SAR)
Heriot REIT (JSE: HET) will be the only remaining shareholder
Here’s something rather interesting: at a time when many property funds are taking advantage of market conditions to raise capital, Safari Investments is taking the opposite approach and repurchasing all the shares in issue that aren’t already held by Heriot REIT. This is essentially a take-private transaction with different structuring, using funds on the Safari balance sheet instead of Heriot needing to go and raise external money.
Heriot already holds a 59.2% stake in Safari. The rest of the register has very thin trade. It therefore doesn’t make a lot of sense for Safari to be listed and incur the associated costs. The more interesting rationale for the deal is that Safari wants to do more development work going forwards, which means that the dividend payout ratio would need to decrease.
Safari’s price for the scheme looks pretty cheeky. R8.00 per share is a premium to the 30-day VWAP of just 2.71%. They are basically telling shareholders that this is their only chance of a liquidity event, so they need to be happy with the price put on the table. Safari’s net asset value (NAV) per share as at June 2025 was R11.77, so they are looking to take the company private at a discount to NAV of 32%.
Safari has received irrevocable undertakings from holders of 34.03% worth of the shares that are eligible to vote. This means that there’s a long way to go to get to the level required to approve the scheme.
Stefanutti Stocks looks set to get a slice of those juicy new profits at Eskom (JSE: SSK)
The Dispute Adjudication Board’s ruling is great news for shareholders
In excellent news for Stefanutti Stocks shareholders (and perhaps not for taxpayers), the Dispute Adjudication Board has decided to award Stefanutti Stocks an additional payment of R685 million based on the Kusile Power Project dispute.
The share price is up by a whopping 51% over six months, yet only 13% year-to-date. It gets even crazier if you look over three years, with a jump of 366%! Stefanutti Stocks has been a highly speculative play where punters had to spend more time digging through the contractual claims than anything else.
When that goes right, it can be lucrative. But such plays can also go to zero, as many speculators have learnt the hard way on the JSE. Punters in Stefanutti Stocks will be very pleased to see the latest announcement.
Standard Bank’s growth continued in the third quarter (JSE: SBK)
Given all the underlying exposures across Africa, consistent performance is great to see
Standard Bank provides quarterly information to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) as a significant minority shareholder. This is to allow the ICBC to correctly account for its investment in Standard Bank.
To ensure that all shareholders have the same level of information, Standard Bank releases this quarterly update to the entire market. Although the information is much lighter than a full report, it at least gives an idea of the recent performance.
In the first six months of the year, headline earnings increased by 8%. Standard Bank has indicated that this growth rate remained consistent in the third quarter. Earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders increased 10% over the nine months.
The share price is 13.5% higher year-to-date.
Zeder’s net asset value has dropped – and not only because of special dividends (JSE: ZED)
There’s some valuation pressure in the underlying portfolio
Zeder has released a trading statement for the six months to August 2025. They use net asset value (NAV) per share, which is the logical approach for an investment holding company.
The expectation is for NAV per share to drop by between 20% and 23.7% vs. August 2024. In case you’re wondering, it will be between 2.8% and 7.3% lower than the NAV per share reported as at February 2025.
To understand this, we need to look at the expected drop in NAV per share, not just the percentage move. The company has indicated a decrease of between 43 cents and 51 cents vs. August 2024. Special dividends of 31 cents per share explain some of the move, but the rest is thanks to negative fair value movements in the remaining unlisted investments in the period.
That’s not what the market wants to hear, hence the share price closed 6% lower at R1.25. The guided NAV per share is between R1.64 and R1.72, so the fund is trading at a significant discount despite the plans to return as much value to shareholders as possible.
Nibbles:
- Director dealings:
- If I look at the latest share awards at Aspen (JSE: APN), my overall sense is that most of the directors and executives kept all the shares and funded the tax from other sources. Sure, there were some who sold the taxable portion, but I’m certainly used to seeing far more sales when share incentives land at companies. Given the depressed nature of the Aspen share price, this is an interesting signal.
- An employee of the Designated Advisor of Visual International Holdings (JSE: VIS) sold shares worth R5k. It blows my mind that when I try access the company website, I still just get a generic holding page for the domain.
- Grindrod (JSE: GND) announced the appointment of Kwazi Mabaso to take over as CEO from Xolani Mbambo with effect from 1 December 2025. You may recall that Mbambo is heading across to Kumba Iron Ore (JSE: KIO) to take the CFO role. Grindrod considered internal and external candidates before choosing Mabaso. I’m always happy to see internal appointments, with Mabaso currently running Grindrod Terminals. He also has a lot of prior experience at Transnet.
- KAP (JSE: KAP) is still deciding on who the new CFO will be to replace Frans Olivier when he steps into the CEO job on 1 November 2025. It’s going to be an important appointment, as the company is under pressure to improve its performance. The company has made “significant progress” in this appointment and expects to announce something soon. The share price has been slaughtered this year, losing half its value year-to-date!
- Telemasters (JSE: TLM) has a market cap of under R50 million and very little trade in its stock, so the results for the year ended June 2025 only get a passing mention down here. Revenue increased 7.8% and although operating profit was down 16.5%, there was a juicy 59% jump in HEPS. A quick look at the segmental reporting reveals that both major divisions experienced an increase in net profit in this period. The dividend per share doubled to 0.2 cents per share, although that is clearly off a tiny base.
- Attacq (JSE: ATT) announced that GCR Ratings affirmed the long-term and short-term national ratings of the company. This is very important for the Domestic Medium-Term Note Programme and the cost of debt for the group.
- Texton (JSE: TEX) has obtained SARB approval for the return of contributed tax capital of 63.87 cents per share (for context, the share price is R3.59 – so it’s a chunk portion of the market cap). The payment date is 30 October 2025.
- Numeral (JSE: XII), one of the smallest companies listed on the JSE, released results for the six months to August 2025. Revenue jumped by 515% to almost $1.2 million and operating profit was $186k.
- Due to related party rules, Merafe (JSE: MRF) had to release an announcement for something that seems like business-as-usual and nothing more. The company’s joint venture with Glencore (JSE: GLN) extended a fuel supply agreement with Astron that has been in place since 2020. It will now run until 2030. The only reason why they need to announce this is that Astron is an associate of Glencore and thus a related party to Merafe. As the contract is in the ordinary course of business and has been concluded on an arm’s length basis, no shareholder approval is required.
Note: Ghost Bites is my journal of each day’s notable 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.
