PDSNET Market Snapshot

Bidvest (BVT) is a highly diversified South African company with dozens of subsidiaries. Its most notable investments are 66% of Bidvest Namibia which also owns a large property portfolio rented out to various Bidvest companies and 56.13% of Adcock Ingram. Its subsidiaries are organised into 6 divisions - Services, Freight, Automotive, Office, Print & Commercial Products, Financial Services and Electrical.

The directors of each operating company are allowed considerable autonomy within this structure provided they produce good returns. This is the opposite of most listed companies, which aim to retain their focus on a single area of business and constantly sell off or close down "non-core" businesses.

Diversification of this sort has the benefit that it reduces risk. When one division is performing badly, the others are performing well. The company is also constantly making new acquisitions. The acquisition of PHS, UK's largest cleaning service was well timed coming immediately before the huge increase in demand for cleaning that followed COVID-19.

The company's investment in alternative energy sources is seen as a potential profit generator. On 3rd July 2024 the company announced that it will be looking for a buyer for Bidvest Bank and FinGlobal. At the same time it announced that acquisition of Citron Hygiene LP. In its results for the six months to 31st December 2025 the company reported revenue up 4% and headline earnings per share (HEPS) up 5,1%.

The company said, "Revenue growth, strong gross margin expansion and disciplined cost control resulted in a 6.9% increase in trading profit to R6.7 billion and a trading margin uplift to 10.1%. All divisions contributed positively to profit growth". Bidvest now trades on a P:E of 13.55 - but we believe it still represents good value at these levels.

Technically the share was been falling since October 2025, but we believe it represents good value at current levels and is now in a new upward trend. On 12th December 2024 Bidvest announced that it had sold Bidvest Bank for R2,8bn. 

Afrocentric (ACT) is a black-owned investment holding company which focuses on health administration and insurance. Sanlam recently acquired 28,7% of the company which will help with its financing and marketing. The group owns 100% of Pharmacy Direct (a courier company), 100% of Curasana (a pharmaceutical wholesaler) and has recently acquired the other 74% of Activo Health (which distributes generic medicines and nutraceuticals) to give it 100%.

This acquisition was executed for R588m in cash and shares, which is a multiple of 9,3 times Activo's most recent after-tax profit (R63m). Its largest asset is its controlling stake in Medscheme which administers medical schemes covering 3,2m lives in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.

Afrocentric is intent on accessing the Medscheme client base to sell its other products. On 11-10-22 Sanlam made an offer to buy between 36,9% and 43,9% of Afrocentric for R6 per share. This caused the share price to rise sharply. In its results for the six months to 30th June 2025 the company reported revenue down 2,6% and headline earnings per share (HEPS) down 38,5%.

The company said, "...the decreased revenue is mainly due to lower private patient scripts pursuant to the loss of the designated service provider contracts in Pharmacy Direct, and the loss of margin in hospital products." In a trading statement for the year to 31st December 2025 the company estimated that HEPS would increase by more than 100% to between 13,5c and 14,25c compared with 3,8c in the previous period.

The company said, "The improvement in headline earnings is attributable to the resilient operational performance of the local administration and managed care operations, as well as, sustained public market retail performance". Technically, the share bounced off support at around 280c, but the recent results disappointed and it has fallen further to 143c. We advise waiting for it to break up through its downward trendline before investigating further.

That may now be imminent.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is listed on the JSE. It is a securities exchange which allows the trade of shares, bonds and derivatives. It has approximately 282 shares which are listed and quoted, and, by market capitalisation, it is by far the biggest stock exchange in Africa, and the 17th largest exchange in the world.

In the past it has been a consistently profitable entity, mainly because it had a monopoly on the trade in equities in South Africa. During 2017, a number of other stock exchanges were registered and licensed to trade equities in South Africa. So far, the most serious competitor which the JSE has is the A2X which now has a growing number of equities listed including Naspers (the largest market cap on the JSE) and Standard Bank as well as a number of stockbrokers.

The A2X claims that its costs of dealing are as much as 50% cheaper than those of the JSE. The JSE has responded to this by bringing its costs down and still has 99,7% of the exchange market by value in South Africa. The company benefited from increased trading volumes because of the volatility associated with COVID-19.

This is a relatively stable investment, which is well-capitalised and trades on a P:E of around 10,14. It will probably take considerable time for the A2X to offer significant competition, but it is gaining ground steadily. In its results for the year to 31st December 2025 the company reported revenue up 14,4% and headline earnings per share (HEPS) up 17,7%.

The company said, "Net finance income declined by 3.9% YoY to R197 million (2024: R205 million) as a result of lower interest rates and the impact of the lease renewal on finance costs. Capital expenditure of R141 million remains focussed on protecting the core business as well as growing new business lines".

The steady downward trend in the share price came to an end on 14th June 2024 when it broke up through its long-term downward trendline and reached 9478c. It was added to the Winning Share List (WSL) on 23rd May 2024 at 9411c and has since risen to 17768c. The rate of de-listings has fallen and there have been new listings.

It is a relatively secure blue-chip share which felt the impact of COVID-19 and the effect of the mismanagement of the local economy but is now recovering rapidly. 

MTN is a leading emerging market mobile operator, serving 290 million people (including 29m in South Africa) in 19 countries across Africa and the Middle EaSt. MTN's three largest subscriber bases are in Iran, Nigeria and South Africa. Generally, companies supplying a mobile service have been faced with very stiff competition and declining voice revenue.

The sharp increase in data usage has, to some extent, mitigated this change, but these companies remain quite risky. MTN is especially risky because of the political risk in Iran and Nigeria. MTN is working with Sanlam to offer insurance products to its clients in the hopes that "fintech" will become a major part of its business.

The goal is to turn MTN into a "...digital operator with a major focus on the fintech, digital, enterprise and wholesale business areas." MTN has rolled out its mobile money services in both Nigeria and South Africa. It is currently offering these services in 14 out of the 21 countries where it operates, and it has 41,8m mobile money customers.

It is trying to increase that number to 60m. MTN has now listed on the Nigerian stock exchange. On 13th January 2023, MTN received an assessment from the Ghanaian tax authorities that it owed $773m (about R13,3bn). This is seen as a "shakedown" of a wealthy international company by a cash-strapped national government - similar to what happened in Nigeria.

The company announced that Mastercard would take a R100bn stake in its fintech business and partner with it to expand that business. In its results for the six months to 30th June 2025 the company reported group service revenue up 23,2% and data revenue up 36,5%. Headline earnings per share (HEPS) came in at 645c compared to a loss of 256c in the previous period.

Clearly, the company is being impacted by the volatility the Nigerian economy which has been a large part of its business. The company said, "Fintech revenue increased by 37.3% on a reported basis; up 24.9%* in CC. EBITDA (before once-off items) increased by 60.6% on a reported basis; up 42.3%* in CC." In an update on the 3 months to 30th September 2025 the company reported service revenue up 25,9% and data revenue up 40,3%.

The company said, "Strong broad-based performance across our markets, led by MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana. Total customers cross 300 million milestone. MTN Nigeria restores positive retained income and net equity positions | Resumes dividend payment." In a trading statement for the year to 31st December 2025 the company estimated that HEPS would be between 1264c and 1284c compared with 98c in the previous period.

The company said, "In our larger operations, MTN Nigeria and MTN Ghana delivered robust results in their FY 25 earnings releases on 26 February 2026 and 27 February 2026, respectively, highlighting improved profitability on better revenue growth. MTN South Africa continued to navigate increased competitive pressures in its prepaid business". The share fell from its cycle high in March 2022 and we recommended applying a downward trendline from that peak and waiting for a clear upside break before investigating further.

That break came on 7th December 2024 at a price of 9289c. It was added to the Winning Shares List (WSL) on 14-1-25 at 9729c and has since moved up to 20898c. 

RCL is a large producer of food, sugar products and chicken in South Africa which is owned 80.4% by Remgro. The company owns a number of very well-known South African brands such as 5 Star maize meal, Farmer Brown and Yum Yum peanut butter. It competes with overseas imports of sugar, chicken, and other foods.

It was impacted by the listeriosis outbreak which damaged the market for processed meats and caused costs estimated at about R158m. The company has been impacted by the weak economy, low consumer spending and high unemployment. The company, through the SA Poultry Association is petitioning the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) for an 82% increase in the tariffs on imported chicken.

On 2nd December 2020, the company announced that Remgro had increased its stake by buying 100m shares at R8,05 each. On 29th March 2023 the company announced that it had sold Vector Logistics for R1,25bn. On 4th June 2024 the company announced that it would unbundle and separately list Rainbow Chicken.

RCL shareholders got 1 Rainbow share for every RCL share that they held on 25th June 2024. On 10th June 2024 the company published the Rainbow's pre-listing statement with the last day to trade being 25th June 2024. In its results for the six months to 31st December 2025 the company reported revenue from continuing operations down 1,9% and headline earnings per share (HEPS) up down 30,6%.

The company said, "RCL FOODS's underlying EBITDA from continuing operations decreased by 14.6% to R1 185,8 million (December 2024: R1 388,0 million). This result was largely due to adverse market dynamics within the sugar industry which had a material negative impact on the performance of our Sugar business unit". The share has been drifting sideways since Rainbow was unbundled, but it may be now starting a new upward trend.