dlk001
Executive Member
Last October, at the tender age of 33, Philippa Johnson of Cape Town received R331m in cash for a tranche of shares in Atlas Properties.
This was just one of many eyebrow-raising deals over R5m by the directors of JSE companies in the past six months.
Atlas CEO Ian Raubenheimer explains that the young Johnson received that wad of cash on behalf of a family trust, which sold some 31% of Atlas to Acucap. Johnson was a non-executive director of Atlas at the time of the sale, so it was recorded in her name. Her father, Peter Irvine, one of the founders of Atlas, died in 2005.
The shares were part of his estate and the huge pile of money accrued to Johnson, her mother and three sisters.
JJM van Zyl, a cousin of the Irvine's, is listed as the seller of another R70m of Atlas shares, apparently to Growthpoint.
Another mega-deal last July was the R371m sale of Steinhoff shares by directors Bruno Steinhoff, Markus Jooste, Hendrik Ferreira and Johannes Neethling.
In 2004 these directors put their money where their mouth was by purchasing 36,5m shares at R8,82. They financed the purchase with debt of R322m. The sale at R21 a share last July was to repay some of that debt. The share is now R24,90, so the 18m shares they retain from the original purchase are free to them - and worth R469m. In October Chris van Niekerk and Gavin van der Merwe sold shares R51,2m and R15,2m.
Steinhoff was the major buyer of Claus Daun's R95,9m sale of KAP shares. It now holds 21% of KAP. It also has 26% of Amap ahead of the sale to Amap of Steinhoff's furniture division.
There's a close alliance between PSG, Steinhoff, KAP and Claus Daun. The latter sold R12m of Steinhoff shares to fund his R10m donation to CIDA Campus. Daun still holds at least 12,7m Steinhoff shares.
Steinhoff personnel feature as buyers of PSG shares in the period, Markus Jooste to the tune of R39m. Jooste, a protégé of Daun, is just a good friend of Jannie Mouton says a source close to them both.
In October Joe Grove, veteran CEO of Unitrans and co-directors, Nick Boshoff and Steve Keys bought Unitrans shares worth R106,5m. This comes some months after Steinhoff took control from M&R.
More directors were selling than buying during the period while the bull market was roaring, indicating fears that it might not last.
According to Piet Viljoen of Regarding Capital Management, investors should buy the shares, which directors are buying. That means load up on PSG, Woolworths and Bidvest, where the directors remain fearless buyers. Jannie Mouton, Markus Jooste and pals bought R118m of PSG shares. Brian Joffe and crew at Bidvest picked up between then nearly R100m of shares.
Last January, Michael Lewis, son of Stanley, the founder of Foschini, sold shares worth R272,5m. Then, in June, he sold another R102,1m. He received R44 a share for the second tranche - a good deal less than the current R67,89, which has moved in sympathy with the Shoprite and Edcon deals.
Lewis said the second tranche of shares was only 15% of his holding. He still holds 14m shares worth R950m.
According to Ronnie Stein, Lewis's family has purchased a German publisher for "several hundred million euros" and needed some cash to pay. The shares were taken up by institutions. The directors own only 2-3% of Foschini shares. The company is seen as a prime private-equity target.
Angus Cruickshank, who was found dead late last year and whose estate is hundreds of millions in the red, registered a R10m option to buy Milkworx shares from CEO Stephan Roux.
Roux explained that Cruickshank, who has also had dealings with Fidentia, was close to the 35% threshold at which we would have had to make an offer to the minority. He wanted eventually to get control and used the option to give himself time. In the event, the options have expired and liquidators are battling to wind up the insolvent estate.
A number of entrepreneurs who built up great businesses were cashing in.
Stewart Cohen and Laurie Chiappini lightened their holdings in the company they founded, Mr Price. Investec co-founder Bernard Kantor took some small change by offloading R16,2m. Stephen Koseff sold R40,2m of Investec stock in December.
Astrapak's Ray Crewe-Brown and co-director Marco Baglioni sold shares worth R13,2m and R7,4m.
Don MacLeod and team at Illovo shed more than R50m of stock but that was part of the deal by which Associated British Foods bought 51% of the sugar counter.
Jeff Wright was bullish about Afgri when we spoke last October but sold R13m of shares in December and R10,9m a couple of weeks later. Nick Wentzel, CEO of Astral cashed in partially on his company's phenomenal success by offloading shares worth R10,9m.
Douglas Reed of DataPro sold two tranches of shares one for R12,3m and another for R37,9m.
Brian Bruce of Murray & Roberts cashed in on the rave around construction shares, selling shares worth R46,5m as that stock took off.
Sean Summers dumped R30m of Pick ‘n Pay stock shortly after stepping down "amicably" last year. Stephen Levenberg has been a large seller of Mvela.
Outgoing Anglo CEO Tony Trahar is recorded as having sold Anglo shares worth R123 in February - one share bought as a formality.
Reg Sherrell once a rising investment banker at Senbank, cashed in just one of his holdings - a R31,5m holding in Invicta. Anton Botha first came to attention as an investment manager at Genbel. In this list, he realised R20m in Vukile shares, one of dozens of holdings.
It seems like yesterday that Gavan Ryan and David Barnes started Coronation but it was actually 33 years ago. In September Ryan cashed in to the tune of R119m. A reassurance for shareholders is that CEO Thys du Toit bought R23m of Coronation stock.
JP Schumacher is recorded as having sold Simmers shares worth R117m. He is actually just a trustee of Lichtenstein-based fund, Top Gold.
Anglo director M Zimmerman sold Anglo shares worth R28,3m and R9,3m of Combined Motor Holdings.
Four Esor directors sold shares worth a total of R26m just a couple of months after the listing, apparently with a view to spreading more shares among the institutions. Stanlib was a significant buyer.
Share prices of virtually all the companies mentioned have continued to rise in spite of the sales. It therefore holds that while one should buy when directors are buying, it is not always wise to do so when they are selling - at least in a bull market.
This was just one of many eyebrow-raising deals over R5m by the directors of JSE companies in the past six months.
Atlas CEO Ian Raubenheimer explains that the young Johnson received that wad of cash on behalf of a family trust, which sold some 31% of Atlas to Acucap. Johnson was a non-executive director of Atlas at the time of the sale, so it was recorded in her name. Her father, Peter Irvine, one of the founders of Atlas, died in 2005.
The shares were part of his estate and the huge pile of money accrued to Johnson, her mother and three sisters.
JJM van Zyl, a cousin of the Irvine's, is listed as the seller of another R70m of Atlas shares, apparently to Growthpoint.
Another mega-deal last July was the R371m sale of Steinhoff shares by directors Bruno Steinhoff, Markus Jooste, Hendrik Ferreira and Johannes Neethling.
In 2004 these directors put their money where their mouth was by purchasing 36,5m shares at R8,82. They financed the purchase with debt of R322m. The sale at R21 a share last July was to repay some of that debt. The share is now R24,90, so the 18m shares they retain from the original purchase are free to them - and worth R469m. In October Chris van Niekerk and Gavin van der Merwe sold shares R51,2m and R15,2m.
Steinhoff was the major buyer of Claus Daun's R95,9m sale of KAP shares. It now holds 21% of KAP. It also has 26% of Amap ahead of the sale to Amap of Steinhoff's furniture division.
There's a close alliance between PSG, Steinhoff, KAP and Claus Daun. The latter sold R12m of Steinhoff shares to fund his R10m donation to CIDA Campus. Daun still holds at least 12,7m Steinhoff shares.
Steinhoff personnel feature as buyers of PSG shares in the period, Markus Jooste to the tune of R39m. Jooste, a protégé of Daun, is just a good friend of Jannie Mouton says a source close to them both.
In October Joe Grove, veteran CEO of Unitrans and co-directors, Nick Boshoff and Steve Keys bought Unitrans shares worth R106,5m. This comes some months after Steinhoff took control from M&R.
More directors were selling than buying during the period while the bull market was roaring, indicating fears that it might not last.
According to Piet Viljoen of Regarding Capital Management, investors should buy the shares, which directors are buying. That means load up on PSG, Woolworths and Bidvest, where the directors remain fearless buyers. Jannie Mouton, Markus Jooste and pals bought R118m of PSG shares. Brian Joffe and crew at Bidvest picked up between then nearly R100m of shares.
Last January, Michael Lewis, son of Stanley, the founder of Foschini, sold shares worth R272,5m. Then, in June, he sold another R102,1m. He received R44 a share for the second tranche - a good deal less than the current R67,89, which has moved in sympathy with the Shoprite and Edcon deals.
Lewis said the second tranche of shares was only 15% of his holding. He still holds 14m shares worth R950m.
According to Ronnie Stein, Lewis's family has purchased a German publisher for "several hundred million euros" and needed some cash to pay. The shares were taken up by institutions. The directors own only 2-3% of Foschini shares. The company is seen as a prime private-equity target.
Angus Cruickshank, who was found dead late last year and whose estate is hundreds of millions in the red, registered a R10m option to buy Milkworx shares from CEO Stephan Roux.
Roux explained that Cruickshank, who has also had dealings with Fidentia, was close to the 35% threshold at which we would have had to make an offer to the minority. He wanted eventually to get control and used the option to give himself time. In the event, the options have expired and liquidators are battling to wind up the insolvent estate.
A number of entrepreneurs who built up great businesses were cashing in.
Stewart Cohen and Laurie Chiappini lightened their holdings in the company they founded, Mr Price. Investec co-founder Bernard Kantor took some small change by offloading R16,2m. Stephen Koseff sold R40,2m of Investec stock in December.
Astrapak's Ray Crewe-Brown and co-director Marco Baglioni sold shares worth R13,2m and R7,4m.
Don MacLeod and team at Illovo shed more than R50m of stock but that was part of the deal by which Associated British Foods bought 51% of the sugar counter.
Jeff Wright was bullish about Afgri when we spoke last October but sold R13m of shares in December and R10,9m a couple of weeks later. Nick Wentzel, CEO of Astral cashed in partially on his company's phenomenal success by offloading shares worth R10,9m.
Douglas Reed of DataPro sold two tranches of shares one for R12,3m and another for R37,9m.
Brian Bruce of Murray & Roberts cashed in on the rave around construction shares, selling shares worth R46,5m as that stock took off.
Sean Summers dumped R30m of Pick ‘n Pay stock shortly after stepping down "amicably" last year. Stephen Levenberg has been a large seller of Mvela.
Outgoing Anglo CEO Tony Trahar is recorded as having sold Anglo shares worth R123 in February - one share bought as a formality.
Reg Sherrell once a rising investment banker at Senbank, cashed in just one of his holdings - a R31,5m holding in Invicta. Anton Botha first came to attention as an investment manager at Genbel. In this list, he realised R20m in Vukile shares, one of dozens of holdings.
It seems like yesterday that Gavan Ryan and David Barnes started Coronation but it was actually 33 years ago. In September Ryan cashed in to the tune of R119m. A reassurance for shareholders is that CEO Thys du Toit bought R23m of Coronation stock.
JP Schumacher is recorded as having sold Simmers shares worth R117m. He is actually just a trustee of Lichtenstein-based fund, Top Gold.
Anglo director M Zimmerman sold Anglo shares worth R28,3m and R9,3m of Combined Motor Holdings.
Four Esor directors sold shares worth a total of R26m just a couple of months after the listing, apparently with a view to spreading more shares among the institutions. Stanlib was a significant buyer.
Share prices of virtually all the companies mentioned have continued to rise in spite of the sales. It therefore holds that while one should buy when directors are buying, it is not always wise to do so when they are selling - at least in a bull market.