The last time I snuffed out a cellphone was some years back when I stupidly plunged into Saldanha Bay before checking the contents of my pocket.
The “basic model” replacement that I picked up at Weskus Mall in Vredenburg has served me well. In the same time span, my accident-prone offspring have gone through a handful of “top of the range” handsets. But in my first major setback of the new year, I smashed my redoubtable Samsung while walking atop Slangkop, near Kommetjie, last week.
As I stooped to right a tipped-over tortoise (courtesy of Dexter, my dastardly Jack Russell/mastiff cross), the phone slipped out of the rucksack. In my clumsy lunge to catch it, I propelled the phone onto a rocky outcrop. The screen was badly splintered and now reflects nothing more than a thin yellow streak across a black backdrop. The phone itself still appears to be working (in that it rings and beeps). There’s a lot of valuable stuff stuck in there — including the Strava map of the route I was ambling along. The more tangible losses are, of course, the contact numbers for hard-to-reach executives, dozens of deep throats and articulate analysts. My meticulously assembled tennis groups ... gone. Also lost — much to the dismay of our tennis group at Fish Hoek — is the much guffawed-at video of my friend (and fierce rival) Anthony’s mishap at Kelvin Grove when he had been a little too liberal with the Deep Heat spray on his cramping inner thigh.
As an interim measure — in the slim hope my phone can be repaired — I sought out a pair of lesser-known brands sent to me by MTN about two years ago. The phones were given a dismissive thumbs-down by my brand-conscious children — one remarking acerbically that you can’t compare apples to pears. I, unfortunately, had little choice but to fire up one of the much-maligned phones. To my amazement, I had the phone fully functioning — replete with WhatsApp — in a few minutes and then proceeded to download my vices (Apple Music, Word with Friends 2, X and TikTok) with consummate ease. The battery (so far) charges easily and is (so far) long lasting. The functionality is far better than my old phone — and I have a spare device tucked away in a bottom drawer in case of further such misfortune. What an unexpected win so early in the year!
The dividend yield sits at an eye-popping 25%, though that’s obviously unsustainable over the longer term
Hopefully there won’t be any mishaps for punters backing junior miner Merafe for comforting dividend payouts in its second half. The market, at least, seems to be responding more circumspectly to production reports from this ferrochrome venture.
Last Friday Merafe reported production of 75,000t from the Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture in the fourth quarter. While that means Merafe finishes the year with a 22% drop in production, the reductions stem from planned pullbacks in response to market conditions. The market took the share down about 3% on Monday — but Merafe has still held fairly firm; at 130c, the share is still up about 11.5% over three months and 10% over six months. The dividend yield sits at an eye-popping 25%, though that’s obviously unsustainable over the longer term. The interim payout (to end-June) was 20c a share. If cash-flush Merafe forks out another 20c for the second half, the forward yield shifts to more than 30%. If ...
One reader — a self-professed Merafe acolyte — recently pointed out to me that the group should have about R2.4bn of fully processed stock. That’s roughly three to four months of supply, ready for export, which — if turned into cash — would be worth about 95c a share (given 2.5-billion or so shares in issue). The cash position, which was R1.6bn or 64c a share at the interim stage, is going to be intriguing to gauge when Merafe’s annual results are released in mid-March.
You do need to factor in the sizeable interim payout along with extra energy costs (diesel and so on) and the fact that several furnaces are still cooling their heels. At the interim stage, directors warned of a softer second half with downward pressure on chrome ore prices expected to translate to lower ferrochrome prices. Of greater concern, directors noted that given the forecast inflationary pressures, Merafe’s margins “are at risk of being squeezed in the second half of 2023”.
At last count, the European benchmark ferrochrome price for the first quarter of 2024 was settled at 144c (US) a pound — a crimp of almost 6% from the fourth quarter. Still, some hope might be taken from platinum miner Tharisa’s recent quarterly report, which noted that average metallurgical-grade chrome concentrate prices held steady at $291/t.
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