The heavyweight title of the first half of March belongs to Remgro. Between early February and mid-March, the Rupert family-controlled investment vehicle offloaded nearly 52-million FirstRand shares, pocketing a cool R4.88bn. Since unbundling its indirect stake via RMB Holdings in 2020, Remgro has treated its direct FirstRand exposure as a noncore asset. This latest sell-down is less about the bank’s prospects and entirely about capital allocation.
Over at Invicta Holdings, the Wiese family has been rearranging the furniture. In a huge R482m off-market transaction, Titan Premier Investments sold more than 13.5-million shares to Thibault Square Financial Services. Because both vehicles are associated with Christo and JD Wiese, this is a classic left-pocket-to-right-pocket transfer — the kind of high-level estate or tax structuring that reminds retail investors of the sheer scale of wealth operating behind the scenes. There was a smaller version of this internal housekeeping at KAP Ltd, where CEO Frans Olivier moved R663,000 worth of shares off-market into The Mashoweng Trust.
At Discovery, insiders seem to be playing different hands. Vitality CEO Neville Koopowitz, via the Pine Acre Trust, dumped more than R39m worth of ordinary shares in the space of two days, while nonexecutive director and former CFO Richard Farber also trimmed his holdings by R1.3m. Yet, Christine Ramon dropped R5m on B preference shares.
At Tharisa, CFO Michael Jones sold R7.2m worth of stock, while group company secretary Sanet Findlay sold nearly R1m. For Jones, however, this isn’t a red flag — it’s a gold watch. Having announced his retirement in early February, effective in July, his sell-off is a classic pre-retirement cash-out rather than a bearish signal on the platinum miner.
Grindrod also saw a wave of profit-taking, with company secretary Vicky Commaille and subsidiary directors Mohamed Haffejee and Reshmee Soni collectively offloading more than R1m in shares (see Investing this week). Similarly, Nepi Rockcastle’s company secretary sold just over R2.5m.
In a PGM market that continues to test nerves, that kind of skin in the game indicates a glass-half-full perspective
However, it’s not all about selling. A chorus of insiders are putting their own money on the line to signal confidence. At Northam Platinum, newly minted audit & risk chair Wouter Hanekom bought nearly R2m in shares. In a PGM market that continues to test nerves, that kind of skin in the game indicates a glass-half-full perspective. Over at KAL Group, CEO Johann Le Roux also stepped up, indirectly acquiring roughly R2m in stock. Even Astral Foods CEO Gary Arnold dipped into the market, picking up a modest R131,000 parcel of shares.
This dip-buying extends beyond local shores. Lesaka Technologies director Ali Mazanderani snapped up $150,000 worth of common stock on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, Greencoat Renewables is seeing action on two fronts: nonexecutive director Bernard Byrne bought €164,000 in shares, while the company itself aggressively purchased more than 323,000 shares as part of its new buyback programme.
Finally, for those watching the institutional players, Bytes Technology Group remains a playground for the big banks. JPMorgan Chase has been heavily utilising equity swaps, deliberately hovering its voting rights right on the 5% threshold throughout the week.
The PIC has been on a buying spree, upping its stakes in industrials and chemicals. The state asset manager bumped its holding in Reunert up to 20.774%, while simultaneously crossing the 20% threshold in Omnia Holdings to reach 20.054%. Allan Gray’s clients are also finding value in the retail sector, acquiring a beneficial interest that pushes their holding in The Spar Group to a solid 15.01%. On the flip side, Peresec Prime Brokers has been trimming its exposure to the hospitality sector, reducing its stake in City Lodge Hotels to 9.21%.
A2X
Trading on A2X over the past week was led by Discovery, which saw R251.9m worth of shares change hands, giving it the largest share of activity on the platform at 15.17%. Property group Growthpoint Properties followed with R124.1m traded (12.04%), while retailer Woolworths Holdings recorded R105.8m (11.8%). Banking counters Absa and Standard Bank also featured among the most active shares on the secondary exchange, with R377.7m (11.68%) and R427.1m (11.26%) in value traded, respectively.
