Publications
Partners
New family on the fruit tree
Family-owned businesses are a bit of a rarity on the JSE these days. While some family-owned companies (Pick n Pay springs to mind) aren’t exactly flavour of the month, history shows successful family-owned businesses (the Oppenheimers, the Ackermans, the Ruperts, the Venters, etc) amply reward shareholders over the long term.
When a new family business comes to market, punters usually pay attention – even if a few of the smaller family ventures that listed on the JSE over recent years (think Country Foods, SA French and WG Wearne) haven’t exactly been inspirational successes.
TheSPECtacle must admit to not spying out “family” developments at Intertrading – a cash shell that used to house a fruit and vegetable exporting business – until the appointment of 30-year-old Gontse Moseneke as non-executive director last week. The appointment of this impressive young man – whose experience in business management and investment banking is backed by some impressive academic qualifications – follows a proposed reverse listing of a 60% stake in Connectnet Broadband Wireless into Intertrading by the Encha Group.
Though not the biggest deal by any means, in terms of empowerment it’s significant as a new black family business looks set to wend its way to the JSE.
The Moseneke family (via Encha) holds wide-ranging interests – from mineral exploration and industrial interests to technology and property assets. Hopefully, over time all those could be listed but for now the Moseneke family has tagged Intertrading as the vehicle with which it will drive growth in its technology interests.
TheSPECtacle reckons there might be a fair flutter around Intertrading when the suspension is lifted.
New status for Tiger
THE SPECTACLE wonders which company will come up smelling sweeter in a deal that saw consumer goods giants Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS] and Unilever “swapping” brands in the broader personal care category. To summarise: Tiger Brands buys the R100m/year Status deodorant business from Unilever, which buys the R24m/year Mousson foam bath and lotions business from Tiger Brands.
Unilever, which already holds the Axe and Brut deodorant brands in SA, had to sell Status to placate competition concerns. The Mousson acquisition looks like a deal sweetener… although it does complement Unilever’s strong soaps and moisturisers segment.
For Tiger Brands the deodorant deal will hopefully spruce up a rather musty home and personal care division, which saw operating profits down 5% to R459m in the year to end-September 2010. But make no mistake, there’ll be no easy market share gains in the deodorant market as Tiger has serious competition in Unilever.
Of course, theSPECtacle wonders whether Tiger’s big rival AVI – which has a growing presence in female and male “fragrances” in Indigo Brands – was given a sniff at Status. Somehow it seems Status might have fitted so much better into Indigo…
The passing parade
RECENTLY theSPECtacle noted how black empowerment investment company Cape Empowerment Trust [JSE:CAE] (CAP) had let go of a large parcel of shares in gaming group Grand Parade Investments [JSE:GPL] (GPI). Quite a few punters, including some CAP shareholders, are wondering whether this is the best time to be offloading GPI scrip. Finweek for one has been advocating GPI as a value-laden gaming play with a good deal of scope for growth by acquisition – in and outside the gaming sector.
So it’s worth noting Cape Town-based investment group Trematon Investments [JSE:TMT] – which modestly claims to hold “a small direct and indirect minority stake in GPI” – confessed recently to increasing its holding in the gaming group.
Don’t bank on it
THE SPECTACLE is sure shareholders in Mercantile Bank Holdings [JSE:MTL] were surprised to hear the niche bank is negotiating an acquisition. After the deal with Sasfin fell apart we might have suspected the next cautionary from Mercantile could have seen Caixa Geral de Depositos (which owns 92% of the issued shares) to make a buyout offer to minority shareholders.
Not too many of theSPECtacle’s respected colleagues have too much insight into a possible acquisition. Although one (who shall remain nameless, unless he’s proved correct) came up with a long shot speculation of some kind of tie-up with metals’ trader Metmar (which, you guessed it, is also trading under a cautionary).
Family-owned businesses are a bit of a rarity on the JSE these days. While some family-owned companies (Pick n Pay springs to mind) aren’t exactly flavour of the month, history shows successful family-owned businesses (the Oppenheimers, the Ackermans, the Ruperts, the Venters, etc) amply reward shareholders over the long term.
When a new family business comes to market, punters usually pay attention – even if a few of the smaller family ventures that listed on the JSE over recent years (think Country Foods, SA French and WG Wearne) haven’t exactly been inspirational successes.
TheSPECtacle must admit to not spying out “family” developments at Intertrading – a cash shell that used to house a fruit and vegetable exporting business – until the appointment of 30-year-old Gontse Moseneke as non-executive director last week. The appointment of this impressive young man – whose experience in business management and investment banking is backed by some impressive academic qualifications – follows a proposed reverse listing of a 60% stake in Connectnet Broadband Wireless into Intertrading by the Encha Group.
Though not the biggest deal by any means, in terms of empowerment it’s significant as a new black family business looks set to wend its way to the JSE.
The Moseneke family (via Encha) holds wide-ranging interests – from mineral exploration and industrial interests to technology and property assets. Hopefully, over time all those could be listed but for now the Moseneke family has tagged Intertrading as the vehicle with which it will drive growth in its technology interests.
TheSPECtacle reckons there might be a fair flutter around Intertrading when the suspension is lifted.
New status for Tiger
THE SPECTACLE wonders which company will come up smelling sweeter in a deal that saw consumer goods giants Tiger Brands [JSE:TBS] and Unilever “swapping” brands in the broader personal care category. To summarise: Tiger Brands buys the R100m/year Status deodorant business from Unilever, which buys the R24m/year Mousson foam bath and lotions business from Tiger Brands.
Unilever, which already holds the Axe and Brut deodorant brands in SA, had to sell Status to placate competition concerns. The Mousson acquisition looks like a deal sweetener… although it does complement Unilever’s strong soaps and moisturisers segment.
For Tiger Brands the deodorant deal will hopefully spruce up a rather musty home and personal care division, which saw operating profits down 5% to R459m in the year to end-September 2010. But make no mistake, there’ll be no easy market share gains in the deodorant market as Tiger has serious competition in Unilever.
Of course, theSPECtacle wonders whether Tiger’s big rival AVI – which has a growing presence in female and male “fragrances” in Indigo Brands – was given a sniff at Status. Somehow it seems Status might have fitted so much better into Indigo…
The passing parade
RECENTLY theSPECtacle noted how black empowerment investment company Cape Empowerment Trust [JSE:CAE] (CAP) had let go of a large parcel of shares in gaming group Grand Parade Investments [JSE:GPL] (GPI). Quite a few punters, including some CAP shareholders, are wondering whether this is the best time to be offloading GPI scrip. Finweek for one has been advocating GPI as a value-laden gaming play with a good deal of scope for growth by acquisition – in and outside the gaming sector.
So it’s worth noting Cape Town-based investment group Trematon Investments [JSE:TMT] – which modestly claims to hold “a small direct and indirect minority stake in GPI” – confessed recently to increasing its holding in the gaming group.
Don’t bank on it
THE SPECTACLE is sure shareholders in Mercantile Bank Holdings [JSE:MTL] were surprised to hear the niche bank is negotiating an acquisition. After the deal with Sasfin fell apart we might have suspected the next cautionary from Mercantile could have seen Caixa Geral de Depositos (which owns 92% of the issued shares) to make a buyout offer to minority shareholders.
Not too many of theSPECtacle’s respected colleagues have too much insight into a possible acquisition. Although one (who shall remain nameless, unless he’s proved correct) came up with a long shot speculation of some kind of tie-up with metals’ trader Metmar (which, you guessed it, is also trading under a cautionary).
