The past fortnight’s director dealings were a reminder that not all purchases are a vote of confidence and not all sales are a warning signal.
Start with Warren Wheatley. The Africa Bitcoin Corporation CEO spent about R470,000 buying 98,538 shares over two trading days. It is not a life-changing sum for an executive, but the timing matters. Africa Bitcoin is an SME lender, using bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset to strengthen its balance sheet and, in theory, lower its funding costs. Wheatley’s purchases might be a modest show of faith in a strategy that still has plenty to prove. The company’s move to the JSE main board in May gave the endeavour a bigger stage, but did not remove bitcoin’s volatility.
There was a stronger signal from London-listed Bytes Technology. CEO Sam Mudd and newly appointed chair-designate Gavin Rochussen spent a combined £519,000 on shares. Rochussen had joined the board only days earlier, making his roughly £416,000 purchase a particularly decisive introduction.
Bytes has been working through changes to Microsoft’s incentive structure and the transition effects of reorganising its private sector sales operation. Gross invoiced income rose 11.5% in the year to end-February, but gross profit grew only 2.5%, and operating profit fell 5.6%.
Capitec’s R201m sale of Capitec Rental Finance to Sasfin is the fortnight’s most interesting corporate transaction because it is not quite the exit it first appears. Capitec is giving up ownership of a business it says no longer fits its core focus but will provide the company with a secured R1.6bn facility to fund its receivables book.
In other words, it is shedding operational and equity risk while retaining a potentially attractive lending relationship. For Sasfin, which has been reshaping itself after disposing of major banking assets, the acquisition adds scale to its equipment-rental platform.
Prosus, meanwhile, is finally closing the Delivery Hero chapter. Its undertaking to sell the remaining 16.8% stake to Uber supports Uber’s €41.50 a share takeover bid and helps Prosus meet commitments linked to its acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com.
Allan Gray crossed 10% in Tiger Brands and 5% in WeBuyCars, while Camissa Asset Management also lifted its WeBuyCars holding above the 5% threshold. Tiger is deep into a turnaround built on tighter costs, improved execution and a slimmer portfolio, while WeBuyCars grew interim revenue 7.8% to R14.2bn, with vehicle purchases and sales volumes both moving higher.
PSG Asset Management’s move above 5% in KAP looks like a cyclical value call on a diversified industrial, chemicals and logistics group. KAP’s interim revenue fell 3%, largely because Safripol remains trapped in a deep global polymers downturn, but operating profit rose 10% and headline earnings per share climbed 32%. Stronger performances from wood products business PG Bison and automotive components maker Feltex, together with lower finance costs and reduced debt, helped offset the chemicals weakness. The attraction may lie in the possibility that KAP can extract more value from recent capital investment and repair underperforming operations.
Ninety One reduced its holding in Hudaco to 3.97%, just after the industrial distribution group spent R284.8m repurchasing 1.5-million of its own shares at R189 apiece. The buyback represented 4.86% of the issued share capital covered by the shareholder mandate. Hudaco’s confidence follows a solid half-year from its continuing operations, with turnover up 9.5% and operating profit rising 11.2% despite a difficult domestic trading environment.
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) trimmed AdvTech but remains a hefty 19.24% shareholder. Its holding fell, but that still leaves it as a substantial shareholder in a business whose 2025 revenue rose 10%, operating profit increased 14%, and margin widened to 21.8%, supported by enrolment growth across its schools and tertiary operations. The disposal may simply reflect portfolio management rather than a change in the PIC’s investment case.
A2X
Over on A2X, Prosus generated the highest trading value among the week’s leading counters, with R185.8m changing hands on the exchange, equivalent to 8.85% of its total market turnover. Absa followed with R98.3m (7.71%). Glencore and Sanlam recorded the strongest A2X penetration, accounting for 10.77% and 10.32% of trading in their shares respectively, on turnovers of R89.9m and R85m. Vodacom rounded out the top five with R42m traded (7.36%). Together, the five securities generated just over R500.9m on A2X during the week.