Promising maiden figures from fintech investor
JSE-LISTED Capital Appreciation has produced a good set of maiden results for the six months to end September with profit after tax jumping by 124%, boosted by three acquisitions made in May.
The investment holding company, which focuses on investing in and developing financial technology (Fintech) enterprises, reported profits of R60.1 million during the period – up from R26.9m last year.
The group is headed by its chairperson Michael “Motty”Sacks, with joint chief executives Michael Pimstein and Bradley Sacks.
The group then declared a maiden dividend of 2 cents a share.In October, 2015 Capital Appreciation was the first special purpose acquisition company (Spac) to list on the main board of the JSE and managed to raise R1 billion through a private placement of shares.
In May this year, the group completed the simultaneous acquisition of 100% of three companies: African Resonance, Dashpay and Synthesis Software Technologies.
It also announced its intention to invest in Resonance Australia and acquired a 17.45% interest in the Australian company.
Capital Appreciation pres- ently has two divisions: Payments and Payment Infrastructure, and Software and Solutions.
In the results the group reported gross revenue of R223.4m – up by 462.72% compared to last year’s R39.7m, while earnings per share (Eps) and headline earnings per share (Heps) came in at 4.02c a share. This reflected an increase of 87% compared to last year’s Eps and Heps of 2.15c.
“The performance statistics set out above are consistent with the results assessed through Capital Appreciation’s due diligence review when the viable asset acquisitions were considered,” the group said.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the period was R85.6m – up from R37.4m, including investment income of R19.6m. The group has R463.1m cash on hand and generated R60.2m cash during the period.
It was also involved in a buyback of 25 million shares at an average cost of 75c a share.
The group has a market capitalisation of around R1.2bn as of yesterday .
It prides itself as a company that promotes Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). Its aggregate BEE shareholding was determined to be 31.4% on an economic interest basis and 39.1% on a voting rights basis.