Belinda Anderson
Of the top 10 fallers on the JSE Securities Exchange in the second quarter this year, three have gone bust and most of the other seven are either restructuring or working on a turnaround.
Regal Treasury Bank went from hero to zero in a matter of weeks.
Although curator Tim Store has been mandated to restore the operations of the bank, even he admits that this is likely to mean being bought out. So far, Regal’s small stockbroking division has been bought by Sasfin.
During the second three months of the year, the share lost 81% of its value on the JSE, from R4,65 to 85c on the last day of June, putting it in the third spot for the biggest share price slump of the quarter. The bulk of the move happened in June, when it was the biggest price faller on the JSE, losing 83% from R5,25 to 85c.
Accord Technologies’s announcement that it was voluntarily seeking liquidation took some by surprise, but that the market did not at least credit it with the value of its 8-million Prism shares was perhaps the best warning sign.
The share fell below 5c in May and continued down to the 1c mark, an 80% decline for the quarter. For June it was also the second-worst performer, off 75% from 4c to 1c.
Les Matuson, MD of CM Solutions, the company brought in to help stave off the liquidation, said on Monday that three banks, Standard, First National Bank and BoE, were exposed to Accord for about R70-million.
The third liquidation during the three months was that of Paradigm Capital Holdings; after it could no longer negotiate additional funding from the bankers and other financiers. The price went from 4c to 1c before being suspended.
Small cap IT and telecoms group Sempres saw the resignation of chairperson Konstant Bruinette and financial director Hendrik Bruinette in June.
Shortly before, Sempres warned that it would not meet prelisting profit forecasts of 20,9c a share for the year because of a delay in launching the software products of its international subsidiary.
When the numbers came out shortly after, revenues had more than doubled from R45,7-million to R107,5-million and earnings a share were 9,4c compared to 6,8c the year before. Sempres was the worst-performing share on the JSE for the second quarter; off 97% from R3,10 to 8c. And in June its fall was bettered only by Regal and Accord; with Sempres losing 69% from 26c to 8c.
Shortly after its listing, Sempres concluded a strategic alliance with Regal, where the now-defunct banking group bought 9% of the company at R3,20 a share. In the context of Regal’s curatorship, the future of that stake is unclear at this stage.
Online data provider E-Data released shocking interim results to March on Monday. Revenues declined by 70% they were R1,6-million for the six months to March compared to R5,3-million for the interim period to December.
Headline earnings a share were a negative 4,5c, as opposed to being 2,4c in the green for the comparative period. During the quarter it lost 83% from 6c to 1c.
Bookmaking company National Sporting Index (NSI) is due to release interim results shortly. During the quarter NSI lost 75% from 8c to 2c. The share was also the fifth worst performer for June, during which it lost 60% from 5c to 2c.
Coal company Century Carbon Mining is currently involved in negotiations around the sale of one of its major subsidiaries and the introduction of a black empowerment partner.
For the year to September Century presented a loss after tax of R26,8-million, which translated into a 66,9c loss a share. March interim results should be out soon. For the second quarter this year, Century’s share price slipped by 73% from 19c to 5c.
Software company Omega Alpha International IT Holdings (OAI) lost 70% from 47c to 14c during the second quarter this year. The Financial Services Board included trade in OAI on its list of insider trading investigations in June. For its year ended in February, the company reported revenue of R104,2-million, down from R107,2-million the year before. Headline earnings a share more than halved, to 15,7c from 32,1c the year before. At the interim period it had forecast growth of 40% for the year, but warned in May that about R50-million in revenue would be held over to the 2002 financial year.
Venture capital-listed company Dectronic was warned by the JSE nearly two weeks ago that its interim numbers were late and it released the figures days later showing a smaller operating loss R1-million compared to R10,9-million for the same six months the year before.
Western Cape-based private equity fund Cape Empowerment Trust has had a bumpy ride since it bought Paradigm’s IT business Intella early last year.
For the year ended in February, Cape Empowerment reported revenues of R43,7-million almost a quarter of the R102,9-million reported the year before. Headline earnings, at 5,9c, were almost half of the comparative year’s reported figure of 10,1c a share.