CA Sales Holdings, which provides services to the fast-moving consumer goods sector in Southern Africa, saw its share price rise 18.1 percent to 600 cents by lunchtime yesterday, after trading in the first morning of its listing on the JSE.
In its pre-listing statement, CA Sales said it was moving its dual primary listing from Cape Town Stock Exchange to the JSE, and its anticipated market capitalisation was estimated to be about R2.2 billion at the date of listing.
At the 600 cents share price, that market capitalisation estimate was comfortably exceeded at more than R2.7bn.
The company, classified as a diversified retailer on the JSE, floated 461.4 million shares on the Main Board, where it is trading under the code CAA.
CA Sales was first incorporated in South Africa in 2011, and then expanded to Botswana, eSwatini, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Zambia. Its services include selling, merchandising, warehousing, distribution, debtors’ administration, marketing and promotions, point of sale warehousing and training.
CA Sales chief executive Duncan Lewis said: “We look forward to raising the profile of our group with the South African-based retail and institutional investor community.
“Our management teams are exceptional and experienced at overcoming the obstacles that might be encountered. If it was easy, everyone would do it! I am excited about the next five years,” said Johan Holtzhausen, the chairman at CA Sales.
The listing brings the number of listed companies on the JSE to 313, with an overall market capitalisation of over R19.3 trillion.
JSE Capital Markets director Valdene Reddy said the listing was a positive reflection on JSE’s efforts to attract new listings.
“We are committed to growing the attractiveness of our listed markets. We have embarked on a journey to improve the ease and appeal of listings through various regulatory and product proposals,” she said.
She said there would always be a macro-environment element to the timing of listings.
“Markets are cyclical, and we do see that environment turning if we look at it relatively to how things were two to three years ago. We have come a long way in making our macro-environment more stable. However, the global environment has become more volatile in terms of inflation and growth concerns, as well as the overhang of a global recession,” she said in response to Business Report’s questions.
She said where previously it was cheaper to raise debt than equities, people were now looking more towards equities than to debt, as interest rates were rising to control inflation.
“We’re seeing that come through with a healthier pipeline build than we have seen in the past 12 to 18 months.
“We are seeing a lot of interest across the board in terms of our public markets, across equities and bonds, particularly in the sustainability space and through our structured products, where we have had big interest in things like our actively managed certificates and demand for actively managed ETFs, as well as ongoing appetite for ETFs and ETNs,” she said.
BUSINESS REPORT