Alphamin will have a new controlling shareholder (JSE: APH)
Is this the first step in a broader takeover plan?
Alphamin has alerted the market to an agreement entered into by its 57% majority shareholder, Tremont Master Holdings, to sell almost all those shares to International Resource Holding (IRH). IRH is based in Abu Dhabi, so this is an interesting further investment from the Middle East in African mining. IRH already holds upstream and midstream assets in the global raw materials market.
This would mean a change of control, so the regulatory pieces could get quite interesting. Alphamin is a Mauritian company that is listed in Canada and on the JSE. The press release by Tremont and IRH indicates that this was a block trade at a price not exceeding 115% of the market price of the shares, hence it qualifies for a private agreement exemption under Canadian takeover law.
Mauritian law does make provision for mandatory offers though, so Alphamin will need to waste no time in clearing up what the legal position is here. I have no idea exactly what the end result will be, so please don’t assume that any mandatory offer might become applicable.
Interestingly, the IRH press release does note that they “may in the future consider the appropriateness of exploring one or more transactions to acquire the balance of the outstanding Common Shares after discussion with Alphamin’s shareholders, board of directors and/or other stakeholders” – in other words, this may well be the first step in the dance.
As always in corporate transactions, nothing is guaranteed and its best to wait for the company to clarify things.
The JSE gives AYO Technology a going away present in the form of a censure (JSE: AYO)
The fine probably won’t be payable though
AYO Technology shouldn’t be listed. It’s time for the company to just be taken into the private space, something that Sekunjalo is now trying to do. A timely reminder of this is a censure by the JSE that has been imposed on AYO for not meeting disclosure requirements back in 2023.
It feels like two years is a long time to finish a disclosure investigation, but it is what it is. The transgression related to the lack of a SENS announcement in March 2023 dealing with the specific repurchase of shares that was necessary for AYO’s settlement with the PIC and GEPF. Primarily, the issue was AYO’s lack of compliance even after the JSE pointed out the need for the announcement. It took AYO roughly two months to actually comply, which the JSE finds unacceptable.
The JSE has imposed a fine of R500,000 on AYO. The fine is wholly suspended for five years, provided there are no further breaches of “similar provisions” of the Listings Requirements. Given the efforts to take the company private, it seems unlikely that they will be listed for long enough to be in breach once more.
Anything is possible though.
Brimstone’s NAV has been hammered by its listed stakes (JSE: BRT | JSE: BRN)
Oceana and Sea Harvest in particular are well down this quarter
As an investment holding company, Brimstone focuses on intrinsic net asset value per share. This is the correct approach. They also give a voluntary quarterly disclosure, which is pretty good going when most JSE companies only report every six months.
Sadly, the latest quarter was very unkind to Brimstone. From December 2024 to March 2025, the INAV per share plummeted by 24.1% to 842.1 cents. The main culprits here are Oceana and Sea Harvest, collectively contributing 77% of Brimstone’s gross asset value. Both companies are listed and suffered nasty drops this quarter of 13.7% and 18.5% respectively.
To add to the pain, the value of Phuthuma Nathi literally halved in this period. It may only be a small stake (and is now even smaller), but it still stings.
Once you factor in a 3.9% increase in net debt at corporate level, you unfortunately reach the position where NAV per share has lost nearly a quarter of its value. Not fun.
Fairvest is buying some retail properties from Collins (JSE: FTA / JSE: FTB | JSE: CPP)
In both cases, these funds are demonstrating strategic focus
Here’s a solid example of two listed funds each applying their minds (and capital) in the right places. I’m a big fan of focused strategies, especially in the property market.
Fairvest wants more retail properties that are servicing township areas and busy commuter routes. This is a huge growth area in South Africa, capturing the shift from informal into formal trading. They aren’t straightforward to run though, with Collins Property Group deciding that they would rather be sending their capital offshore. It therefore makes plenty of sense that Fairvest is buying five such retail properties from Collins for a meaty R477.7 million.
The properties are located in KZN and the Western Cape. The blended yield for the acquisition is 9.81%. The anchor tenants are all grocery retailers as one would expect, including Shoprite, Boxer and even a SuperSpar.
As for Collins, they plan to invest the net proceeds (after costs and minority interests) in the Netherlands. They’ve also indicated that the selling price is in line with the fair value of each property as determined by the directors of Collins.
Jubilee Metals is selling the South African chrome and PGM operations (JSE: JBL)
This is a major strategic decision for the company
Jubilee Metals operates in South Africa and Zambia. Much of the focus and excitement has been around the copper assets in Zambia. Going forwards, that will be (almost) the entire focus, as Jubilee has received a conditional binding offer for the chrome and PGM operations in South Africa.
The price on the table is up to $90 million, with the usual conditions and adjustments being part of the deal. The reason why I included the “(almost)” above is that Jubilee will retail all rights to the Tjate Platinum mining project, so there’s some ongoing exposure here in case PGMs do well.
The main reason why Jubilee is serious about this offer is that the chrome and PGM operations are mature. To achieve further strong growth, they would need to invest capital in them. With so many copper opportunities in Zambia, this is simply too much for the Jubilee balance sheet. It therefore makes sense to offload the assets to someone else, thereby injecting plenty of capital into the group for the Zambian opportunity.
Importantly, this is a more appealing funding prospect than the Abu Dhabi investment firm that was sniffing around the copper assets. Selling off the chrome and PGM assets allows Jubilee to fund the copper assets without diluting its stake in them.
Notably, the cash would be received over three years, so the $90 million doesn’t arrive up-front. There are also a number of conditions, including a shareholder approval.
Separately, Jubilee noted that they’ve secured a further run-of-mine stockpile in Zambia, which they’ve paid for by issuing new Jubilee shares at a 14% premium to the closing price on 3 June. Nice!
MultiChoice is still making fat losses (JSE: MCG)
The vast investment in Showmax continues
As I’ve said many times, the Canal+ deal isn’t just important for MultiChoice, it’s a matter of life or death. A trading statement for the year ended March 2025 gives further evidence for this view, as they are still making a headline loss per share. Sure, it might have narrowed by between 62% and 66%, but it remains a loss.
They try and use non-IFRS measures to improve the story, like “organic trading profit” which excludes the impact of forex. When you’re building a business across Africa, excluding forex from the numbers is like asking people to focus only on your star players in your team. Sadly, life isn’t that simple.
The profit on sale of a 60% shareholding in NMS Insurance Services to Sanlam certainly helps the overall numbers (and is excluded from HEPS), but that’s obviously not an indication of maintainable earnings. The fact remains that MultiChoice is throwing everything at Showmax, while blaming everything from macroeconomic factors through to the rise of piracy(!).
Top tip for MultiChoice: if your technology was better and your pricing wasn’t designed to actively rip off anyone looking for a decent sports bouquet, you would do a great job of getting rid of privacy. I pay for the full bouquet because it’s the only way to get all the sport I want, but there are many who don’t or can’t. It’s incredible to me that there still isn’t a SuperSport-only bouquet for a reasonable amount every month.
Anyway, it will hopefully be Canal+’s problem soon. I hope they have a plan to fix the South African business.
NEPI Rockcastle is looking for a new CEO (JSE: NRP)
Time to dust off that CV?
NEPI Rockcastle has had an exceptional few years. The market loves the story, with the company enjoying exposure to exciting markets in Europe that offer a mix of growth and currency stability.
Rudiger Dany has been leading the company as CEO during the COVID period and has decided to conclude his tenure in March 2026. The group is therefore looking for a replacement, with the search opened up to both internal and external candidates.
The market will hope for certainty on this as soon as possible.
Nibbles:
- Directors:
- Here’s one to take note of: the CEO of Bidvest (JSE: BVT) bought shares worth R10 million in the company.
- Another one that I think is worth paying attention to is the trend in director dealings at Santova (JSE: SNV). After some initial on-market buying by directors after the announcement of the recent acquisition, a few directors have now exercised share options. But here’s the interesting thing: only one of the directors chose to sell a portion. Although I’m usually nervous of reading much into share-based awards, this is effectively a “buy” for me under the circumstances, as it implies that the directors are funding the tax with other cash resources.
- An associate of a prescribed officer of Thungela Resources (JSE: TGA) sold shares worth R91.4k.
- There’s nothing you can read from this into the share price as its a forced sale, but I always like highlighting how these hedge transactions play out. Adrian Gore of Discovery (JSE: DSY) had to sell around R38 million in shares as the share price at the collar’s maturity was higher than the strike price on the call options. Similarly, Barry Swartzberg sold R75 million in shares.
- As unusual and illiquid stocks on the JSE go, Nictus (JSE: NCS) is right up there. The tiny company just saw a major jump in earnings though, with HEPS up by between 74.07% and 94.07%, which means a range of between 35.61 cents and 39.71 cents for the year ended March 2024. The current share price is R1.45.
- Telemasters Holdings (JSE: TLM) renewed the cautionary announcement. This relates to the two largest shareholders of the group having been approached by a B-BBEE investor. The investor has now secured funding, so the parties are in the process of negotiating agreements.
