Some critics of value investing define it as “buying something nobody wants and then acting surprised nobody wants it”.
That is probably a fair criticism of buying a share simply because it looks cheap, then sitting back and hoping for better days.
But there is another class of value investor: the activist. Activists do not wait patiently for Mr Market to change his mind on bombed-out shares. They try to force the issue by engaging with management, pushing for better capital allocation, demanding cost discipline, agitating for buybacks or disposals, challenging sleepy boards and, in more extreme cases, taking board seats or even stepping into management.
Most retail investors do not have the firepower to build meaningful stakes in companies, even small caps. Nor do they have the time, skill or inclination to involve themselves in corporate turnarounds. But they can follow activist value investors into companies and ride their coattails, hoping to share in the value uplift.
Of course, activists are not infallible. They can be wrong, boards can resist, value traps can stay trapped and turnarounds can fail. But backing an activist with a strong track record is often more compelling than sticking with a company still run by the same management team that destroyed value in the first place.
Better still is a company that is both a value-unlock story in its own right and an acquisition platform for further value-unlock opportunities, all overseen by the same activist investor. Then you are not just betting on one turnaround. You are backing a capital allocator who can recycle cash into the next opportunity.
That is the attraction of Aimia, a Canadian company that recently obtained a secondary inward listing on the JSE. It began life as the listed vehicle for Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flyer programme, spun out in 2005 as a standalone loyalty business. That business later unravelled, and Aimia has since been recast as an investment holding company.
Saudi Arabia’s Mithaq Capital remains the largest shareholder, but Milkwood gives Aimia its activist identity
Until recently, its asset base was anchored by a 94.2% stake in Giovanni Bozzetto, an Italian speciality chemicals business, alongside Cortland International, which makes high-performance synthetic ropes, nets, slings and tethers, and a 10.85% interest in Clear Media, a Chinese outdoor advertising group. Bozzetto has since been sold, with the transaction closing at the end of May and generating net proceeds of C$268m. That gives Aimia a far larger cash pile, with scope to repay about C$143m of debt and still leave roughly C$164m — just under R2bn — for acquisitions.
That is where Milkwood Capital comes in. Milkwood is a UK-based investment management firm founded in 2014 by Rhys Summerton, the former Citigroup global head of emerging-market equity research. Summerton is now Aimia’s executive chair, while Milkwood holds a material stake in the company. Saudi Arabia’s Mithaq Capital remains the largest shareholder, but Milkwood gives Aimia its activist identity.
Milkwood’s own history is instructive. It did not start as an activist fund but as a deep-value investor that bought neglected companies across markets where prices looked compelling. But cheap alone was not enough. “The first five or six years, we were bashing our heads against the wall,” Milkwood analyst and partner André Tonkin admits in an interview. “We were buying cheap things, but no-one cared.”
The shift began in 2018 with South African industrial group Argent, where active engagement with management helped redirect capital from lower-return local assets into higher-margin UK manufacturing ventures, while also supporting share buybacks. The next major case was UK-based Menzies, where Milkwood pushed the group away from its legacy newspaper distribution roots and towards its more valuable aviation business. During Covid, when Menzies collapsed almost 90%, Milkwood resisted dilutive capital raising and helped bring in co-investors. The aviation business was later sold at a far higher price.
Today, about half of Milkwood’s portfolio is made up of passive positions, while the balance is in deeply activist investments where Summerton may even serve as CEO or executive chair. That shift has materially changed the fund’s return profile, with reported cumulative gains of more than 500% over the past five years.
Aimia is the permanent capital vehicle for that playbook. Management wants to sell noncore assets, cut holding company costs and improve capital allocation. The company has a market value of about C$240m against net book value of roughly C$374m, before ascribing any value to about C$1bn of unrecognised tax losses. Those losses could be worth an estimated C$214m if successfully utilised, though their split between Canada and the US creates practical constraints.
The JSE listing gives South African investors rand-denominated access to Aimia and may attract retail interest, but more importantly, it creates a platform for pursuing South African listed opportunities. Milkwood already has local exposure through Argent and iOCO, with Summerton also serving as CEO of iOCO after a shareholder-led reset.
Future activity could take several forms. Aimia or related parties could increase their stakes in Argent or iOCO, or Aimia could look for new targets among neglected JSE small and mid-caps.
So far, not a single Aimia share has traded on the JSE since its secondary listing on February 24 2026, while the bid-offer spread is wide enough for several buses to drive through. But it is still early days. Local interest is likely to grow if Aimia starts making South African acquisitions, especially if investors can see a path to repeating the recent value creation seen at Argent and iOCO.
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