CAXTON

Share price: 1 900c JSE code: CAT

BUY CAXTON HAS BEEN THE HOT CAT IN THE media industry for some time. But in a quiet, unassertive way. It actually makes money out of print media, without the hullabaloo of other media companies. And it has a useful foot in online media through owning Moneyweb.

Co-founder and long-time boss Terry Moolman once told this writer, over a lunch of prawns, one of his favourite dishes, that his knock ’n drops were aimed at the woman in the house. “Women make the buying decisions. So I pack my papers with advertisements that they can choose from. And women read my papers, while their husbands read something fancy like The Economist.”

It’s a formula that seems to work. The papers are crammed with advertising, so companies send adspend Caxton’s way.

Lately Caxton has been locked in a battle with News24, a division of Naspers, over allegedly lifting articles from Moneyweb, giving the impression they had authored the stories. Judgment is awaited.

Caxton has also been making acquisitions. Moolman is careful with his money but he bought Nampak Cartons & Labels for R328,4m. The acquisition is credited with lifting latest interim results, where headline earnings per share rose by 10,7%.

The earnings multiple is a pretty hefty 18,2 times, though that is the JSE’s average, and the dividend yield is a not too bad 3,2%. One consensus rates Caxton as a buy, and IM agrees.