ANTHONY CLARK: Yes, it’s time for Zeder to go
One-time racehorse is now more like a broken-down old nag on its way to the glue factory
A sudden twist in the news flow changed my column this month. Out of the blue after the market close on September 9, a bombshell news release from Zeder Investments got my heart racing and my mind buzzing.I’ve covered Zeder since its listing by PSG Group in 2006 at 135c and have been highly critical of it over the past two years. In my August 2019 IM column, I called for it to be wound up and sold due to its underperformance and widening discount.How did it all go wrong for a business that started so well? For its first few years of listing Zeder did what it was supposed to do. It bought stakes in undervalued, mainly agricultural businesses, most of which traded over the counter. It then cajoled management to enhance the capital structures and investor returns. Its crown jewel was a majority stake in Pioneer Foods, SA’s second-largest food stock.But that was the start of Zeder’s downfall. The stake was so chunky in its asset base that where Pioneer Foods went, Zeder followed. A seri...
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