Astral Foods is printing money (JSE: ARL)
Interim HEPS will be through the roof
Astral Foods released a trading update ahead of an important investor conference coming up next week. This is common practice among companies, as it frees them up to discuss the performance in more detail with institutional investors and analysts at the conference.
The trading statement deals with the six months ending March 2026. And what a period it is – HEPS is expected to increase by at least 435%! Or, put differently, HEPS will be at least 5.3x larger (at least R21.88) than in the comparable period (when it was R4.09).
When things go well in poultry, they go extremely well. And in this case, just about everything has been going well.
Volumes and selling prices are up, margins have improved thanks to favourable feed input costs, other costs are under control, and there have been no major business disruptions.
The market knows that HEPS is volatile, hence the share price is up by “only” 61% over 12 months. That’s a great performance, but it obviously trails the percentage move in HEPS.
A new CEO at BHP (JSE: BHG)
Mike Henry moves on after 6.5 years in the role
BHP has announced that Mike Henry will be stepping down from the top job at the company. Having been CEO for 6.5 years, he steered them through the COVID period and its aftermath.
His successor is Brandon Craig, who has more than 25 years of experience at BHP. He is currently President: Americas at BHP, which encompasses the operations in North and South America. This gave him plenty of exposure to copper as the key future metal.
He also previously led the Western Australia Iron Ore business, so there’s plenty of experience here across the key operations in the group.
BHP is the world’s largest mining company, so a new CEO is a big deal. And yes, he’s a South African!
What do you think we will see from BHP over the next few years?
Ethos Capital is in the final stages of its value unlock (JSE: EPE)
There’s just one asset left
Ethos Capital has released results for the six months to December 2025. Due to the specifics of this company, they are far more out of date than you might think!
You see, Ethos Capital is busy monetising its assets and returning the proceeds to shareholders. Much has happened since December 2025, so they also give the net asset value (NAV) per share as at 17 March 2026.
It’s a moving target, as the only remaining asset in the group is a 4.5% indirect stake in Optasia (JSE: OPA) that was retained after the IPO of that company. This means that you could technically work out the NAV per share on a daily basis for Ethos Capital.
As at 17 March 2026, the NAV per share was R7.65. The Ethos share price is trading at roughly a 10% discount to the NAV, reflecting the uncertainty and costs involved in monetising the remaining stake. The post-IPO lock-up is in place until May 2026, so Ethos is stuck until then with the Optasia shares.
It’s almost time for this investment holding company to head off into the sunset.
The turnaround at iOCO continues (JSE: IOC)
I love the way they give earnings guidance
iOCO has a great story to tell at the moment. In the results for the six months ended January 2026, HEPS increased by a substantial 47.4%.
This was achieved despite revenue growth of only 3.5%, so you can see that the group is tightly managing the expense base. EBITDA was up by 21% and operating profit increased by 12%. Thanks to net finance costs dropping by 35%, this was enough to achieve the excellent result in HEPS.
Even more encouragingly, the group has raised its guidance for full-year EBITDA to above R610 million (previously R580 million – R600 million). They expect that recurring revenue will be at least 60% of the business, with a minimum of 60 cents in free cash flow per share.
How often do you see free cash flow per share guidance in South Africa? In fact, how often do you see such detailed guidance at all?
As a sign of just how far things have come for this group, their latest acquisition (MySky Group) will be settled with R47 million in cash and R5 million in shares. Keep in mind that iOCO is the phoenix that emerged from the ashes of EOH. To see acquisitions being settled (even partially) in shares is incredible.
Master Drilling flags a modest decline in HEPS (JSE: MDI)
The release of a trading statement was triggered for other reasons
Master Drilling has released a trading statement for the year ended December 2025. HEPS in rand will be between 6.9% lower and 3.0% higher than the prior period, so the mid-point of that range is a slightly negative year-on-year move.
In US dollars, HEPS will be between 4.5% lower and 5.6% higher than the prior period. In this case, the mid-point is slightly in the green.
The reason why a trading statement was required is that earnings per share (EPS) has jumped by between 63.1% and 73.0% in rand (or between 66.9% and 77.4% in US dollars). This is thanks to the reversal of previous impairments to the Mobile Tunnel Boring Machine. It’s a reminder of the uncertainty that the company needs to deal with in its operations, as things can change quickly around the usefulness of specific equipment.
PPC continues to “Awaken the Giant” (JSE: PPC)
Revenue and profits are heading in the right direction
PPC released an operational update for the ten months to January 2026. The market clearly liked it, as the share price closed 8.4% higher on the day. The “Awaken the Giant” strategy is working beautifully.
Revenue for the period is up 4% and adjusted EBITDA increased by 22%. In this case, the adjustments make EBITDA lower rather than higher, as they are reversing out a sale of a non-core property for an accounting profit. I would therefore suggest working with the adjusted numbers.
On an adjusted basis, EBITDA margin was 280 basis points higher at 19.4%. Both the SA Group and Zimbabwe contributed positively here, as you’ll find out in more detail below.
Capital expenditure for the full year will be slightly below the guidance of R450 million. This is due to maintenance activity and related shutdowns spilling over into the new financial year. Those shutdowns have caused a temporary spike in inventory of R208 million.
The shutdowns mean that net cash flow before investing activities is R567 million in the current period, down from R692 million in the comparable period.
The South African group is in a net cash position of R367 million, a juicy improvement from R106 million as at 31 January 2025. This is a good time to remind you that PPC was once an absolute basket case, with all the talk being around whether the group would end up in business rescue!
Here’s another important nugget for those keeping an eye on Botswana: cement volumes in that country are down. The diamond casualties continue.
South African volumes are up by 2%. Just a modest uptick in local activity would make a world of difference to PPC’s business.
Despite this light growth in South Africa and the pressure in Botswana, the operations in these countries grew EBITDA by 17% on a combined basis.
In Zimbabwe, volumes were up by an excellent 22%. EBITDA was up by 23%, so you aren’t seeing much in the way of operating leverage there – but you’re certainly seeing plenty of growth. PPC has flagged some margin pressure that will come through in the final months of the year, as there has been a mechanical failure at the Bulawayo factory.
Record dividends from PPC Zimbabwe are just the icing on the cake for this story.
Sabvest’s NAV performed beautifully in 2025 (JSE: SBP)
The dividend has followed suit
Sabvest, one of the best investment holding companies on the JSE, released results for the year ended December 2025.
The company holds 11 unlisted investments, just one listed investment, and two investments currently noted as held-for-sale. Everything is accounted for on a fair value basis, which is why net asset value (NAV) per share is the right performance metric for the group.
NAV per share increased by a delightful 21.9% to R161.05. The dividend per share was 23.8% higher at 130 cents. This was a great year for Sabvest.
Then again, with a 20-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the NAV per share of 19.2% (without dividends), is anyone really surprised?
In terms of portfolio concentration, the two largest holdings (Apex Partners Holdings and SA Bias Industries) contribute R3.1 billion of the total fair value of just over R6 billion. This means that over half of the portfolio sits in just two assets.
Encouragingly, Sabvest has indicated that there might be further investments in the pipeline in 2026. This is a sign of positive sentiment.
Vukile’s Castellana inks another deal in Spain (JSE: VKE)
This adds to the retail portfolio
Vukile Property Fund announced that 99.7%-held Spanish subsidiary, Castellana Properties, is acquiring a 50% share in Splau Shopping Centre.
The centre is located in Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain. This is a tourist hotspot that attracts plenty of footfall. The centre has a strong leisure angle to address this demand, including the largest cinema in Spain with more than 770,000 visitors.
Going to the movies is clearly still a thing in Barcelona!
Here’s another interesting stat: 77% of customers at the centre arrive by car. I’m quite surprised by how high that is, given the level of public transport in Europe.
The gross asset value of the property is €350 million, and there is a mortgage balance of €171.5 million. Castellana is paying €89 million for the 50% share.
Vukile indicates that this deal is earnings accretive for the company.
Nibbles:
- Director dealings:
- The sons of the Dis-Chem (JSE: DCP) founders sold shares worth just over R320 million. It looks like the sales were by an entity (or trust – it’s not clear) in which they both have an interest. Dis-Chem also decided it was too much work to include the total value of the sale in the SENS announcement, so I had to literally add up more than 20 trades.
- A non-executive director of STADIO (JSE: SDO) bought shares worth R198k.
- The CEO of Libstar (JSE: LBR) bought shares worth almost R100k.
- Des de Beer is back on the bid, buying Lighthouse Properties (JSE: LTE) shares worth R76k.
- Putprop (JSE: PPR) has very little liquidity in its stock, so the results for the six months to December 2025 only get a mention down here. HEPS at the property company declined from 28.35 cents to 24.19 cents. This is the inevitable outcome of a mere 3.4% increase in rentals and recoveries vs. an 8.5% increase in property operating costs. These issues were partially mitigated by a 25% reduction in finance costs. Despite the challenges, the dividend per share increased from 7 cents to 8.5 cents.
- Sirius Real Estate (JSE: SRE) has secured a €300 million revolving credit facility. There are four lenders involved in this facility. With a three-year term and two one-year extension options, there’s very useful flexibility here. There’s also an accordion of up to €100 million, allowing the facility to be increased on the same terms as the initial amount. Pricing and covenants are in line with the original €150 million revolving credit facility, which means a margin of 120 basis points over EURIBOR. Covenants are also largely in line with the 2032 bond. When property funds can raise revolving credit facilities, rather than debt against specific properties, you know they are doing well.
- Supermarket Income REIT (JSE: SRI) has increased its secured term loan for the joint venture with funds managed by Blue Owl Capital. The facility with a syndicate of banks has been increased by £222 million to £437 million. This is an interest-only facility maturing in June 2028, with two one-year extension options. The cost is fixed for the entire facility at 5.24%. The proceeds will refinance near-term debt maturities, resulting in a loan-to-value ratio for the company of 43%.
- Orion Minerals (JSE: ORN) has settled the final acquisition consideration for the Okiep Copper Project. This means a further R2.3 million in cash and R12.44 million in shares will change hands. There’s a potential “agterskot” payment down the line based on certain conditions.
