It could only happen to me — catching a vicious head cold in the middle of an intense Western Cape heatwave. I blame my wife’s insistence on plunging into the glacial Kommetjie swell at twilight.
At 7am on Saturday, I was still feverish — a mere six hours before the first league tennis game of the season. With reserves in short supply, I could not pull out of the fixture. So, I tried to mend matters as best I could. The first port of call was the dappled chill of the upstairs balcony, where our faithful old hound Dexter usually keeps watch over early-morning comings and goings. Dexter was none too happy to have his lonely vigil disturbed but could sense something was amiss, seeing his best friend so badly buckled and swathed in several of Glodina’s thickest wraps.
I curled up on the couch and sweated profusely for several hours. I was feeling horribly nauseous after a possible overdose of Corenza C on an empty stomach. But after a midmorning coffee with a dollop of medicinal grappa, I felt I might be able to punch a few volleys. Lousy as I felt, I played quite well in uncomfortably muggy conditions on the slopes of the mountain. I expended as little effort as possible, or gave just enough to preclude a chiding from my redoubtable partner, the King.
The ploy certainly supported the theory that in certain sports, particularly those with small margins of error, you perform better when you play within yourself. The King and I quickly dragged a hard-hitting University of Cape Town (UCT) pair into the gutter (6-0, 6-0, if you must know), and then I surprisingly managed to snaffle my mixed doubles match as well.
The mixed match was a little tougher. A young lady from the citrus farming hamlet of Kirkwood — in fact, just arrived that day for her first year at UCT — was pounding some sweet forehands to all corners of the court. How we pipped them, I really don’t know. Victory came at a price though. By the time I steered my motorbike into the garage, my legs were wobbly and I felt as if a vice was slowly tightening around my head. By Sunday lunchtime I had fully relapsed into chilled shivers and clammy fevers, and not necessarily in that order. Call it a sick-love, sick-love defeat.
AVI looks a tad more enticing after an encouraging trading statement covering the six months to end-December
Speaking of difficult victories, consumer brands giant AVI looks a tad more enticing after an encouraging trading statement covering the six months to end-December. After international snacks giant Mondelez International walked away from a possible deal to buy select bits of AVI in 2021, the market has been a bit iffy on what has been one of the more consistent performers in the consumer brands category.
Most heartening is that the large food and beverage segment pushed up revenue 9% to R6.7bn — a good showing, considering that fishing segment I&J endured another sluggish interim period. Revenue from fashion brands crept up 0.5% to R1.7bn as sales in personal care products dipped. The larger footwear and apparel component swished in with a 7% hike in sales to more than R1.16bn — a rather impressive feat that hopefully means the problematic Green Cross division is stepping high again.
AVI has predicted interim earnings of 370c a share, which probably justifies the superior 15 earnings multiple slapped on the group’s share. The second half is traditionally markedly slower for AVI, but if the improved sales volumes and better factory efficiencies at Entyce Beverages (Five Roses, Freshpak, House of Coffees) and Snackworks (Bakers, Willards) flow through stronger in the second half, might we pencil in second-half earnings of close to 250c a share? That would put AVI on a 13.5 forward multiple, and a rather juicy dividend yield. Still, I can’t help wondering what multiple the group would command just for its upmarket food and beverage brands, setting aside the more cyclical I&J? In fact, I could think of a rip-roaring megadeal with another large food brands counter.
Closing on a happy note, shareholders in unlisted liquor group Capevin, which was carved out of the Heineken buyout of Distell, can at last raise a cheer.
In January Capevin, which now focuses mainly on the Scotch business, totted up its first dividend — an interim 100c a share. There’s not an abundance of detail on the investor web page, save that the payout was declared out of income reserves.
Whether those reserves include the R1bn proceeds from the recently proposed sale of the gin business to Diageo is not clear. But 100c (80c on a net basis) is a good start for Capevin shareholders — which include investment giant Remgro and myself — and yields an effective 6.7% on the R15 a share value placed on the unlisted shares at the time of the Heineken deal. I wonder what price Capevin shares are commanding at the moment. A little more than R15, I’d venture.
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