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Amid a deluge of corporate news on Tuesday, miner Tharisa surged after it announced a share buyback, while Ascendis has returned to profit. In international news, US presidential candidate Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology Group surged 37% during its debut on the Nasdaq.
Chrome and platinum group metals producer, Tharisa, announced an up to $5 million (about R95 million) share buyback programme, with its shares jumping 11% as a result, valuing it at about R4.3 billion on the JSE. "We have maintained our strict capital discipline throughout the commodity cycles and believe it inopportune to allocate capital to a share repurchase programme to the benefit of our shareholders and reflecting our firm belief in the prospects for our company," CFO Michael Jones said in a statement. "While the PGM commodity pricing environments are challenging, chrome prices have remained firm, reinforcing the strength of our co-product business model." As of Tuesday afternoon, its shares had still lost about a third on a one-year basis.
Ascendis Health informed shareholders that it returned to profit in its six months to end-December, which may be its last results as a listed company. It expects headline earnings per share will be between 11.4c and 14c, compared to the headline loss per share from total operations of 27.4c, or R172 million, previously. The group had received a buyout offer last year and, after a delay related to a complaint laid at the Takeover Regulation Panel, it has set a shareholder voting date of 23 April. Shares of Ascendis, valued at about R512 million on the JSE, were up 2.5% on Tuesday afternoon and have risen by over a quarter in the past 12 months.
