Omnia (OMN) is a diversified chemicals company supplying products to the agricultural, chemicals and mining industries in South Africa and 48 other countries. The Agricultural division is the leader in fertilizers in Southern Africa. It supplies granular, liquid and speciality fertilizers in Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil. The...
PPC is a leading manufacturer and supplier of cement, aggregates, ready-mix, lime, limestone, and fly-ash in Africa. It has eleven cement factories in South Africa, Botswana, the DRC, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Ethiopia with a total production capacity of 11,5 million tons. It produces aggregates at its Mooiplaas quarry in Gauteng which is the largest aggregates...
On 11th September 2019, Naspers (NPN) separately listed Prosus (PRX) on the Euronext in Amsterdam to house all its international assets including its stake in Tencent, Mail.Ru and other internet brands. Naspers holds 73% of Prosus and there is a 25% free float. One of the benefits of the Euronext listing is that it removes the risk inherent in the rand, so Prosus...
Sirius (SRE) is a real estate investment trust (REIT), listed on the JSE and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which specialises in office, manufacturing, and warehousing properties in Germany. The company owns 141 assets with a book value of about 2bn euros. Obviously, this is a well-managed and growing rand-hedge which was benefiting directly from the recovery of...
Stefanutti (SSK) is a South African construction company which offers roads and earthworks, marine construction, concrete structures, bulk pipelines, piling, geotechnical services, open pit contract mining, affordable housing, mine residue disposal, and other services. It operates in sub-Saharan Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The company is considering...
Emira Property (EMI) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) which has substantial exposure to the South African economy through its office properties. It owns the prestigious Knightsbridge office park in Bryanston. It has a new CEO in the form of Geoff Jennett and the business has been improving consistently since he took over. It has about R760m of overseas...
Gold Fields (GFI) is a relatively high-cost international gold mining house with a single mine in South Africa - South Deep. South Deep was bought by Gold Fields in 2006 and it has struggled to make the mine profitable, pouring in a total of R32bn (R22bn purchase price plus R10bn in development costs) into it over the past 14 years. Brett Kebble once described...
Investec (INL) does specialist banking and asset management in South Africa, Australia, Europe, the UK, and a few other countries. Brexit in the UK has put pressure on Investec shares over the past 4 years. The decision to separately list its asset management division in the form of Ninety-One has unlocked shareholder value, which is becoming more apparent now...
Life Healthcare (LHC) is the second-largest, JSE main-board listed, healthcare company with private hospitals, same-day clinics and surgeries and healthcare companies in South Africa, the UK (alliance Medical) and Western Europe. The out-going CEO, Shrey Viranna, says that the group is trying to diversify away from conventional hospitals more towards day-clinics...
Nepi-Rockcastle (NRP) is a R124bn real estate investment trust (REIT) which operates more than 56 shopping malls in 9 central and eastern European countries, mostly in Poland (24%), Romania (35%), Slovakia (9%), Bulgaria (8%), Croatia (5%) and Hungary (11%). The share fell with the rest of the Resilient group (as a result of the 360ne report in January 2018) from...
Safari (SAR) is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The company owns 7 operational properties in South Africa - 8 retail outlets and one day-care center with a total value of R3,46bn and a vacancy of 3,03%. Six of the seven retail outlets are in Gauteng. The group's gross lettable area (GLA) in South Africa is 175 167 square meters with arrears of 2,2%. The...
Sanlam (SLM) is one of the largest insurance and financial services groups in South Africa. It was established in 1918 and demutualised in 1998 and then listed on the JSE and the Namibian Stock Exchange. It has operations in South Africa, the UK, America, Europe, India, and Australia as well as a range of other African countries. Its product range includes general...
AH Vest (AHL) produces a range of sauces under the All-Joy brand and seeks to diversify into ready meals, soups and canned vegetables. It is the second largest producer of tomato sauce in South Africa. In its financials for the year to 30th June 2023 the company reported revenue up 2,5% and headline earnings per share (HEPS) down 33,2%. The company said, "The...
Brikor (BIK) is a company that manufactures bricks, roof tiles and clay pipes. It was listed on the Alt-X in August 2007 and describes itself as "...a diverse manufacturer and supplier of building and construction materials across a broad spectrum of the market from low-cost housing, residential to commercial, industrial, civil engineering and infrastructure...
Frontier Transport (FTH) is a bus company whose major asset is Golden Arrow bus services, but which also owns Sibanye Bus Services, Table bay Rapid Transit, N2 Express, Eljosa Travel and Tour, Shuttle Up and Alpine Truck and Bus. The company says, "The current portfolio is rooted in the commuter bus and luxury coach segments. Through its principal subsidiary...
The sad fall of the Woolworths share (WHL) price was occasioned by the decision of previous CEO, Ian Moir, and his board to buy David Jones in Australia for AU$2,1bn which has now had R12bn written off its original purchase price of R20bn in 2014. The only aspect sustaining the Woolworths group was its food sales. Woollies announced on 14th January 2020 that they...
Historically, Telkom (TKG) was the government-controlled provider of fixed line telephone connectivity in South Africa. With the advent of cell phones, Telkom was forced to subsidise the development of its own competition in the form of Vodacom, MTN and more recently Cell-C. This subsidy takes the form of termination rates for calls which are now being phased out....
Reinet (RNI) is an investment holding company whose main asset is a holding of roughly 2,12% of British American Tobacco (BAT) worth about $1,8bn which now accounts for 31% of its net asset value (NAV) - down from 85% ten years ago. This decline from a year ago is because the price of BAT shares has fallen. Most of this reflects the more difficult legal...