Hulamin made losses in 2025 (JSE: HLM)
The situation is much worse than initially thought
When a trading statement talks about a move of “at least 20%”, then you need to be very careful. This is the minimum requirement under JSE Listings Requirements, so the move could actually be much worse than 20%.
The idea is that companies must release a trading statement when they have a high degree of certainty that the move will exceed 20%. They must also update the market when they have a better idea of the range.
Hulamin gives us a perfect example of this in practice. In December 2025, they released a trading statement flagging a drop of at least 20% in HEPS for the year ended December 2025. The narrative made it clear that it was a particularly ugly year, with operational challenges at the mill in the aftermath of an integrated plant shutdown.
But now we know exactly how bad things got, as a further trading statement notes that they’ve actually swung into a deeply loss-making position. The normalised headline loss per share was -25 cents to -31 cents, a huge swing from profits of 55 cents per share in the prior period.
The prior period numbers have been restated based on the classification of Extrusions as a discontinued operation.
The share price fell more than 10% on the day. It’s now down 27% over six months.
Labat Africa to acquire the rest of Ahnamu Investments (JSE: LAB)
Someone is getting a great deal here – but who?
Labat Africa has agreed to acquire the remaining 49% in Ahnamu Investments from Humza Khan, an unrelated party. This comes after they acquired 51% of Ahnamu in a deal announced in March 2025.
Labat also announced that the seller of the original 51% in Ahnamu, Christopher Mark Govender, has disposed of his full holding of 200 million shares in Labat (roughly 12% of the total shares in issue).
Labat will be paying for the remaining 49% through the issuance of new Labat shares worth R40 million. We will have to see how long Khan decides to keep them!
Ahnamu is an ICT solutions provider operating across the SADC region. In the nine months ended November 2025, the company had net assets of R185.1 million and profit after tax of R41.9 million.
You may recall the recent announcement regarding Ahnamu’s relationship with Shafi Incorporated. This is a five-year supply and services agreement with an estimated run-rate of R200 million per annum in revenue. This should give a significant further boost to the financial performance.
But here’s the thing: the price just makes absolutely no sense.
Ahnamu has annualised profit of roughly R56 million – and that’s before we even take the new supply agreement into account. Labat paying R40 million for 49% implies a value of R81.6 million for 100% of Ahnamu. Or, put differently, a Price/Earnings multiple of less than 1.5x.
Someone here is getting the deal of a lifetime. Let’s hope it’s the Labat shareholders.
Excellent earnings growth at Premier (JSE: PMR)
Mid-single digit revenue growth seems to be all they need
Premier Group continues to do a fantastic job of driving earnings growth, despite only relatively modest revenue growth.
In a trading statement for the year ending March 2026, the company noted that HEPS has grown by between 20% and 30%. This is an exceptional outcome, particularly as it was achieved with revenue growth of only mid-single digits.
Deflation in global grain prices has put downward pressure on revenue growth, with Premier expecting that situation to continue. Although this drives higher volumes (as the products are more affordable for consumers), it requires the company to run as efficiently as possible.
The Aeroton mega-bakery has been commissioned and is expected to drive further efficiencies and scale benefits in the inland region.
The acquisition of RFG Holdings is expected to be completed by 30 March 2026. This trading statement excludes anything to do with the accounting for that transaction.
I really hope that the acquisition won’t prove to be a mistake. The two companies have such different earnings profiles. When they are combined, investors won’t be able to choose one or the other anymore.
It’s also worth noting that Premier repurchased 1.4% of its issued shares for R323 million during March 2026.
With the deal about to close, what are your thoughts on the Premier – RFG combination?
The Foschini Group flags a HEPS decline of at least 20% (JSE: TFG)
Just how bad will it be?
The Foschini Group has released a trading update for the 50 weeks ended 14 March 2026. This is just a couple of weeks short of the full financial year, so the group also feels confident enough to release a trading statement dealing with the 12 months to March 2026.
The fourth quarter of the year has been better than the earlier periods in TFG Africa, as the two-pot withdrawal impact was much lighter in Q4’25 than in Q3’25. Base effects make a big difference in retail.
Q4’26 sales growth currently sits at 7.6%, which is significantly better than the year-to-date growth rate of 5.2%.
Encouragingly, gross margin has now normalised. It’s not enough to make up for the pain earlier in the year, so management is asking investors to focus on exit velocity (the performance at the end of the period – a measure of momentum) rather than the full-year numbers. In practice, investors will look at both concepts.
Looking abroad, TFG London has only managed growth of 0.4% year-to-date excluding White Stuff. If we isolate Q4, which includes White Stuff in the base, growth was 3.4%. This confirms that White Stuff is achieving decent growth, with pro-forma sales growth of 5.2% year-to-date in that business.
TFG Australia has little in the way of good news. Q4 sales have been flat, while the year-to-date situation is a decrease in sales of 1.4% (in local currency).
Of course, such tepid revenue performance is nowhere near enough to protect profitability. In a previous trading statement, the group noted an expected decline in earnings per share of at least 20%. They’ve now confirmed that HEPS will also decline by at least 20%.
Be very careful of wording like “at least 20%” – as you will see in the York Timber example below, the words “at least” can work very hard.
A less-than-ideal day for York Timber (JSE: YRK)
A trading statement paints an ugly picture – and the CEO is leaving
Earlier in March, York Timber released a trading statement that indicated HEPS growth of between 1.82% and 6.78% for the six months to December 2025. In an updated trading statement, they suddenly expect HEPS to drop by between 50.18% and 52.49%.
What on earth is going on here?
The first important point is that the guided HEPS range for the latest period is unchanged in the updated trading statement (still 14.57 cents to 15.28 cents). The change is to the base period, where HEPS was restated from 14.31 cents to 30.67 cents – this explains why the percentage move has changed so much. They will give full details on this in the earnings release on 31 March.
As if this wasn’t weird enough, shareholders were also asked to stomach the news of York CEO, Gabriël Stoltz, resigning from the role with effect from 31 March 2026. That’s an almost immediate departure, which is never a good sign.
Stoltz has been there since 2017, first as the CFO and then as the CEO in 2022. He’s agreed to make himself available to the group during a transition period on an as-needed basis.
A replacement CEO hasn’t been announced at this stage.
The share price fell 8.2% on the day. Here’s the kicker though: the news about the CEO only came out when markets were closed. The market move was only in response to the trading statement, not the sudden change in leadership.
Hold on to your hats with this one!
Nibbles:
- Director dealings:
- A director of Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW) bought shares worth R7.3 million.
- An independent non-executive director of KAL Group (JSE: KAL) bought shares worth R62k.
- There is limited liquidity in the stock of South Ocean Holdings (JSE: SOH), so I’ll just mention the results for the year ended December 2025 down here. Revenue fell by only 3%, yet operating profit tanked by 86%. This is what happens in a business with paper-thin margins. HEPS fell by 70% to just 6.81 cents. Ouch.
- Salungano Group (JSE: SLG) is catching up on its financial reporting. This is why the company has released a trading statement dealing with the year ended March 2025 – and no, that isn’t a typo! HEPS has swung strongly positive, coming in at between 0.5 cents and 4.0 cents vs. the headline loss of 111.91 cents in the year ended March 2024. It looks like the 2025 financials will be released within the next week.
