Ghost Bites (Aspen | Harmony | Kore Potash | Mantengu Mining | MC Mining)

Get the latest recap of JSE news in the Ghost Wrap podcast, brought to you by Mazars:

Aspen’s deals with Sandoz have achieved Chinese regulatory approval (JSE: APN)

The deals are on track to close in this financial year

Back in December last year, Aspen announced that it would acquire all the shares in Sandoz (China) Pharmaceutical Co, along with commercialisation rights and intellectual property for the established products of the company and the pipeline for the short to medium term.

As part of the same overall deal, Aspen would sell four anaesthetic products to Sandoz that are currently sold by Aspen in the European Economic Area.

As you can imagine, there are a number of regulatory approvals that need to be obtained along the way. One was for the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation to approve the transactions. This approval has now been granted, which puts on the deals on track to be completed in this financial year.

Unions singing in Harmony (JSE: HAR)

For the first time, there’s a five-year wage agreement with all five labour unions

Harmony Gold announced a landmark five-year wage agreement that covers all five labour unions in the group. This is the first time in the company’s 73-year history that such a deal has been reached.

For planning purposes, having certainty around labour costs for five years is incredibly helpful for Harmony.

There are various elements to the deal, ranging from annual wage increases (for most workers, equal to 6.2% or CPI, whichever is greater) through to increased housing and living-out allowances.

The announcement unfortunately doesn’t indicate the overall effective percentage increase over five years.

Kore Potash appoints a CEO (JSE: KP2)

This is a big step, given the remaining uncertainty

If you’ve ever taken a risk with a business venture before, you’ll know that hiring ahead of the curve is only one of the many big decisions you need to make. Simply, you need the right bums in seats before there’s certainty over the way forward. It’s a proper chicken and egg problem.

Kore Potash has been putting tons of work into getting the Kola project to the point where there’s an agreed EPC contract and funding proposal. The slog continues, but there must be a general feeling of optimism around it as the company has appointed André Baya as CEO. He has loads of experience in Africa.

Oddly, the CEO role at Kora Potash is a non-board role.

Mantengu Mining is now breakeven (JSE: MTU)

Yet the share price has halved in the past year

Mantengu Mining is tiny. The market cap is less than R100 million, which puts it in a difficult space on the local market. Recent activity has seen the company putting together capital raises from GEM Yield funds, with a circular having been issued to shareholders in December 2023.

The major project in the group is Langpan, which has a chrome plant that was commissioned in May 2023.

The group has issued a trading statement for the year ended February 2024 that notes HEPS of between 0 and 1 cent – the tiniest of positive HEPS. That’s still a significant improvement from the headline loss per share of -12 cents in the comparable period though!

Detailed results are due for release on 29 May.

Goldway extends the time period for the MC Mining offer (JSE: MCZ)

At the 11th hour, there’s a two-week extension

The games continue around the offer by Goldway to shareholders in MC Mining, with Goldway dishing out the surprise move of extending the offer by two weeks. It was due to close at the end of this week (5 April) and previous communication was that it wouldn’t be extended.

Obviously, this is because the minimum required acceptances haven’t been achieved. The independent board notes that Goldway has notified acceptances from holders of 12.1% of shares, which equates to 34% of the shares to which the offer relates.

Of course, the real question now is whether the extension will potentially come with an increased offer that takes the price closer to the range suggested by the independent expert. The game of chess (mixed with poker) continues.

Little Bites:

• Exxaro (JSE: EXX) announced that its special dividend of 572 cents has received SARB approval. The payment date is Monday, 13th May.

• If you are a shareholder in AYO Technology (JSE: AYO), then be sure to refer to the latest financial statements which include a “change statement” – this means that adjustments have been made between the announcement of results and the release of the financial statements. In other AYO news, Sekunjalo Investment Holdings now has 42.8% in the company.

• Eastern Platinum (JSE: EPS) is late in filing its audited financial statements for the year ended December 2023. Although the general public can continue trading in shares, the directors and prescribed officers of the company cannot. The company plans to file and get back on track as soon as possible, with no specific date given.

• Conduit Capital (JSE: CND) announced that the hearing for the applications by the liquidators of Constantia Insurance Company to provisionally wind-up Conduit Capital and its subsidiary Conduit Ventures has been postponed to 2 August 2024 as the applications are opposed.

• Tongaat Hulett (JSE: TON) has released its latest business rescue update. If you’ve been following that process, you can find it here.

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