MARC HASENFUSS: A haunted HomeChoice?
It will be intriguing to gauge whether a nasty legacy issue comes back to haunt HomeChoice
One would think a decade and a half is time enough for the oft-unforgiving market to forget past infractions and injuries. Well, specialist retailer and financial services company HomeChoice International is about to find out. The company, which has ambitions to grow into a multiplatform retailer with a strong micro-lending offering, recently indicated a willingness to go to the market to raise fresh capital to fund these growth initiatives. How much capital is to be raised has not been confirmed, but HomeChoice CEO Shirley Maltz says R1bn would be the minimum target. Presuming a large strategic investor does not emerge — would acquisitive Long4Life be interested? — a successful capital raising would entail several deep-pocketed institutional shareholders clambering aboard. At face value HomeChoice looks a compelling proposition. Despite a strong run in the shares to a high of R47, it still trades on a trailing earnings multiple of about nine — well below the traditionally richer mu...
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