Roy Cokayne
PROMINENT fleet management, stolen vehicle recovery and insurance telematics group Cartrack Holdings listed on the JSE on Friday at an opening price of R9.50 a share, 10 percent higher than R8.50 a share it obtained in a private placement prior to listing.
The company’s shares closed at R9.50 on Friday.
Zak Calisto, the global chief executive, was happy with the listing price, but believed there was still “a lot of upside, but the market will sort it out”.
Cartrack raised a total R510 million through the placement of 60 million ordinary shares at R8.50 a share ahead of its planned listing on the JSE.
The placement represented 20 percent of Cartrack’s issued share capital on listing, but was lower than the company’s price range of between R10 and R15 a share.
Prior to the private placement, Calisto owned 88 percent of Cartrack’s shareholding and sales director Juan Marais 12 percent.
Cartrack previously stated the company intended to eventually float up to 47 percent of the company’s shares, with the current shareholders retaining a minimum 53 percent of the company.
Demand
Calisto said there was huge demand for the company’s shares at R8.50 and it could have placed more than the shares it wanted to place, but was only prepared to place more shares if the price exceeded R12 a share.
He stressed Cartrack’s management would only evaluate future dilution of their shareholding in the company “at the right point in time”.
“In the foreseeable future, we will not be diluting further. In 18 months time we could consider it but there is a lot of upside (to the share). The most important thing we got out of the listing is what we wanted – the brand awareness and perceived credibility when dealing with international institutions,” he said.
Calisto said Cartrack decided to proceed with the private placement despite the offers received not being within the offer price range, because of the time and energy consumed in listing the company and it not being feasible to list the company early next year. “I can add more value to the company by working rather than being on road shows,” he said.
Calisto said foreign investors took up 20 percent of the shares available in the private placement, which had resulted in a good mix between corporates and individuals, and foreign and local investors.
He believed there would be sufficient liquidity in Cartrack shares despite only having listed 20 percent of the company because of the split in shareholders between institutions, who were likely to be longer-term investors, and private individuals who might be punters.
“We did the placement in a specific manner to get the liquidity and demand (for Cartrack shares) going,” he said.
Apart from South Africa, Cartrack operates in 11 other countries in Africa, three countries in Asia – Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines – and three countries in Europe – Poland, Spain and Portugal.
Calisto said Cartrack planned to have operations in 20 countries in the next two years that were profitable with a good executive and the brand established.