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Definition

This refers to transactions in shares in quantities other than round hundreds. With the advent of on-line trading and the further computerisation of the JSE, the need for a distinction between "odd lots" and "round lots" has largely fallen away. In the past, before the JSE dematerialised, trading in odd lots carried a higher brokerage than round lots and there were even specialist odd-lot brokers. Today, it is possible for an investor to buy any amount of shares that suits him/her and even fractions of shares. This makes it easier for investors to buy high priced shares like Naspers which trades for around R2500 per share. If you had to buy a round lot of 100 shares, that would cost about R285 000 - which was beyond what most private investors could afford. But today you could buy four Naspers shares for about R11 420. Companies which have a considerable number of shareholders with odd lots or very small holding sometimes undertake an offer to buy back these small quantities of shares to reduce the number of transactions in their shares and "tidy up" their share register. For example, the shareholders of Supergroup (SPG) approved an odd-lot share buy-back at their meeting on 29th November 2022. They determined that they had 49014 odd-lots held by 2347 shareholders and representing 0,14143% of their issued shares. They offered those shareholders a 10% premium to the 10-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the shares on Friday 2nd December 2022. Another way to reduce or eliminate odd-lots is the perform a consolidation.  For example, Aveng (AEG) consolidated its shares 500-for-1 with effect from 8th December 2021.

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