African Phoenix: Slow rise from the ashes
It’s early days as the investment holding company that is the new incarnation of Abil takes to the bourse again
The market doesn’t seem to quite know what to make of comeback kid, African Phoenix — the resurrected African Bank Investments Ltd (Abil) — minus the bank. It was renamed in September last year after its banking licence was revoked. Shares resumed trade on February 1 following an almost 2½-year suspension, triggered by the curatorship of Abil’s largest subsidiary, African Bank. A lot has taken place during that time, including SA’s first successful bank rescue. The new African Bank (the “good” bank, distinct from the “bad” bank, which remains in runoff) launched in April last year under new management, which has plans to enter transactional banking later this year. On its first day of trade, the share closed at 52c — a premium to its net asset value (book value) per share of 35.7c. Some of the initial share-price lift came from traders who needed to cover historical short positions — that is, they had borrowed shares from brokers to on-sell, believing that the price would keep falli...
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