Plague diary — week five: not much stimulus in the Hasenfuss household, though sorely needed in this testing time. A ruined tomato crop, incessant yapping of the dogs (on the slightest whiff of baboons), a neighbour inducing horrible national service flashbacks by playing Taps at sunset every night and the tedium of a constrained exercise regime have pressed spirits lower.
To find some traction, I focused on an internal restructuring effort to boost work efficiencies — centred mostly on clearing out my overflowing desk drawers. The effort, which was fairly strenuous and ate away most of my precious lunch hour, yielded mixed results. While desk order has been restored, the haul was underwhelming. A couple of Diclofenac Potassium tablets (possibly expired), a mini bottle of Jägermeister (three-quarters full), an old Viz annual (which I’d probably been hiding from the wife and kids), one of those fidget spinners (gold and still able to whirr effortlessly) and two Parker ballpoint pens (still boxed with refills). No sign of my long-lost Krugerrand — but I did find share certificates for T&N Holdings and Value Group (which I assume were scrip dividends from many, many years ago). There was also a certificate for TBB Holdings that belonged to my wife. We don’t talk about that one ... ever.
On the markets, there was also not much to occupy me last week, except my pathetic effort to call the bottom of the oil price. So I can’t exactly gush about a little flutter on SBA WTI Oil ETNs — which I believed was a more prudent option than stuffing around with Sasol.
Still, there is some comfort for me in these days of stanched payouts. I can look forward to two sizeable cash distributions this week — courtesy of Trencor and Zeder. You can’t have enough dry powder these days. One thing to look forward to this week is the Comair meeting to vote on revised nonexecutive packages.
This might be one of the most satisfying developments I’ve witnessed in my tenure as a financial journalist (apart from being branded a "snotkop" by a top businessman who took umbrage at a story some years back). Late last year Comair shareholders voted against the approval of nonexecutive directors’ fees. The company actually listened, and chair Lindsay Ralphs will have his annual fee cut by an astounding 75% from almost R1.6m to R400,000. What’s more, companies that have defended stout nonexecutive fees might well be less inclined to dismiss shareholder carping when diminished market capitalisations throw a harsher light on such structures.
Intriguing move
Speaking of boards of directors, another interesting development I noticed was the appointment of Kees Kruythoff as a nonexecutive director of Remgro- controlled RCL Foods. Kruythoff, says RCL, is "a uniquely global leader, having lived and worked on five continents" and also has extensive experience in performance management and (RCL shareholders will be glad to hear) "strategically repositioning businesses for growth".
Kruythoff is currently chair and CEO of The LivekindlyCo, a global plant-based food company funded with a $200m contribution by founder Roger Lienhard with investment firm Blue Horizon Corp (which has backed alternative protein start-ups like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat).
Does this signal that RCL — still hobbled by its exposure to cyclical sectors like poultry and sugar — intends taking a similar tack at diversification? Kruythoff has previously held senior positions at Unilever, including GM of SA operations. With speculation that Remgro must eventually push its Siqalo Foods business — bought from Unilever almost three years ago — towards RCL, it might not be a bad idea to have his experience at a business in desperate need of growth.
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