Caxton: Shares plunge after Friday’s 25% leap

Media company Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers fell the most in at least 23 years yesterday after a holding company and a bank offered to buy its second-biggest shareholder. Shares declined as much as 26 percent to R18.50 in early morning trade yesterday after rising 25 percent on Friday, the day that Remgro and Rand Merchant Bank offered R2.34 billion to acquire ElementOne. Caxton ended the day 18.2 percent lower at R20.45, giving the company a market value of R11.6bn. ElementOne has a 17 percent stake in Caxton, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Jean Pierre Verster, an equity analyst at 36One Asset Management, said the decline in Caxton shares was due to some shareholders who possibly realised that a mandatory offer would not be made to them in addition to ElementOne investors. “It’s very erratic trading on very low volumes so I would not read too much into it,” Verster said. – Bloomberg and Asha Speckman