A change in management at Aveng (JSE: AEG)

This comes after the share price lost roughly half its value in the past year

The Aveng share price has been a rather sad and sorry tale. They’ve been struggling with the Australian business McConnell Dowell (haven’t we heard that story many times before on the JSE?) and they went through a strategic process of figuring out how to separate it out from the group. After investors hoped for news of a value unlock, what they got instead was an update in December that Aveng would be hanging onto McConnell Dowell.

There’s also a potential sale of the South African business (Moolmans) on the cards. They recently appointed a new managing director in that business, which is an unusual step when you’re trying to sell something.

I don’t know what else has happened in the background, but it seems as though there’s unhappiness and disagreement in the system as the CEO has decided to part ways with the company. Scott Cummins will step down with effect from 30 January 2026 – that’s just one step short of an immediate change.

David Simpson will be appointed as the interim group CEO. Although the announcement gives lots of vague commentary about his previous roles, it neglects to indicate which companies he has led before.

The company has also begun the search for a permanent CEO. Interim appointments often become permanent after due process has been followed, but not always.

Results for the six months to December are expected around 24th February. That’s going to be rather interesting.

The share price fell 6% on the day of the announcement.

Ninety One’s AUM continues to grow (JSE: NY1 | JSE: N91)

They’ve had a really good year

Ninety One’s share price is up by well over 50% in the past year. It closed 7% higher on Friday based on the assets under management (AUM) update. For a company like this, AUM is the lifeblood of revenue, as it is the basis upon which fees are earned. When AUM is heading in the right direction, the share price tends to do the same.

The AUM figure at 31 December 2025 of £159.8 billion is a meaty 22.7% higher than it was at 31 December 2024. The amplified impact on the share price is thanks to better sentiment towards the business and the positive impact on margins of achieving growth like this.

Recent momentum is also encouraging, as AUM is 5% higher than it was at the end of September 2025.

Shareholders will want to see more of this as Ninety One closes out their financial year in the next quarter.

Nibbles:

• Director dealings:
  • Several executives at Life Healthcare (JSE: LHC) received share awards and took different courses of action. Encouragingly, it looks like the CEO hasn’t even sold the taxable portion, choosing instead to keep the full R3.3 million in shares. Two other directors sold only the taxable portion (the usual approach). Also, there were two senior execs who sold previously vested shares worth a total of roughly R10 million.
  • A senior exec at Investec (JSE: INL | JSE: INP) sold shares worth around R7.7 million.

• Remgro (JSE: REM) has renewed the cautionary announcement related to a potential restructuring of the Mediclinic investment. You may recall that the intention here is for Remgro to take full ownership of Mediclinic Southern Africa, while the Swiss partners would then take full ownership of the Swiss business. Negotiations are still underway. It’s lovely to see an intention to increase exposure to South Africa rather than a desire to deploy more capital offshore!

• After a long, painful and rather worrying process to get the deal done, Shuka Minerals (JSE: SKA) must be thrilled to announce that the acquisition of Leopard Exploration and Mining has now closed. This means they have 100% ownership of the Kabwe Zinc Mine. This is of course only the beginning – like all junior mining projects, it will be a capital hungry process.