Halfway into the year, market movers and shakers are as busy as ever. If you haven’t been checking the Sens lately, here’s what you’ve missed.
In a show of confidence, Altron CFO Carel Snyman purchased 35,000 shares for a total of R841,449.50. This on-market transaction is a positive signal from the executive suite, after some promising numbers for the year to end-February. A noteworthy transaction comes from Bidvest Group, where CEO Mpumi Madisa made an investment of more than R10m to acquire 41,460 shares. A purchase of this magnitude from a top-level executive is a powerful statement of belief in the company’s valuation and its capacity to continue generating good returns.
At Investec, CEO Fani Titi conducted an on-market sale of 156,635 shares, releasing more than £833,000. While director sales can sometimes raise eyebrows, they can be motivated by a variety of personal finance reasons.
KAP nonexecutive director Johan Holtzhausen — best known as one of the prime movers at PSG Capital — indirectly increased his interest in the industrial conglomerate. An associate, Daleiwan Investments, of which Holtzhausen is a director and shareholder, purchased 41,000 shares for R99,220.
In the property sector, André van der Veer, nonexecutive director at Nepi Rockcastle, purchased 1,025 ordinary shares for R137,973.
There was a wave of insider buying at Santova this past fortnight. In a collective signal of internal optimism, five directors of Santova and subsidiary companies purchased Santova shares worth a total of about R1.3m. These transactions by Vincent Boelens, Boy Booysen, Anthony van Zyl, James Robertson and Muhammad Desai represent a broad vote of confidence in the logistics company’s outlook after the acquisition of the Seabourne Group for £17m last month.
At Standard Bank, Sune Brugman, the spouse of Arno Daehnke, sold 45,278 shares valued at more than R10m.
Eric Wisse, a director of a major subsidiary of Stefanutti Stocks Holdings, purchased 26,000 ordinary shares for R100,100. This is a positive sign for the restoration of this construction and engineering firm, indicating confidence from within its operational leadership.
Allan Gray clients have increased their collective interest in pharma giant Aspen Pharmacare to more than 5%
Meanwhile, Allan Gray clients increased their collective interest in pharma giant Aspen Pharmacare to more than 5%. When a significant fund manager such as Allan Gray crosses this threshold, it’s often interpreted as a strong endorsement of the company’s intrinsic value and long-term potential — even if the market still seems willing to wait for a second opinion on a slightly under-the-weather Aspen.
In another intriguing deal, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, managed by Norges Bank — which has been increasingly fishing in South African waters of late — hiked its holding in TFG to 5.12%.
Finally, at Thungela Resources there has been a notable increase in institutional interest. JPMorgan has raised its holding to 6.63% of the issued ordinary shares, a substantial increase from its previous 4.88%.
A2X
On A2X this week, Prosus led the board with R319.2m traded, accounting for 11.84% of total market value. It was followed by Richemont, which recorded R128.3m in trades (11.2%). Mr Price came in third with R79.5m (8.16%), ahead of Aspen Pharmacare at R27m (7.15%) and Discovery, which saw R65m worth of shares change hands (7.02%).
A notable trend is the expanding use of A2X’s auction on demand platform. After months of being used for a small number of high-value block trades, activity surged in May to more than 9,700 trades worth more than R1.6bn. The platform is a discreet, on-demand auction mechanism that allows brokers to execute large trades at a single clearing price without displaying order size or urgency.
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