INVESTMENT SHORTS

If Global Asset Management was — as its name suggests — a wealth management specialist, it might have elicited more market interest when it listed in 2012.

But Global had zip to do with fund management. Rather, it specialised in the distinctly unsexy area of forklift financing. Of late the company has branched rather unexpectedly into alternative energy — using recyclable materials such as tyres and plastic as well as solar applications.

Though the shift from forklifts to alternative energy requires a serious suspension of belief, it does seem that the waste material projects have already gained some traction.

Perhaps the more open-minded investors will look at it a little more seriously now that the company is proposing an issue of shares to empowerment magnate Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC).

The deal would entail ARC subscribing for 19.3m Global shares, equivalent to a 26.3% stake at a subscription price of 207c/share. That would give Global R40m in fresh capital for its new energy endeavours.

ARC will also, for a nominal consideration, take a 46% stake in Global’s subsidiary Enviroprotek, a waste tyre recycling plant which converts waste rubber into industrial fuel oil, carbon black and steel.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Global has wooed a serious investor. Recently the company struck a subscription agreement for shares in subsidiary Plastic Green Energy (PGE) by specialist asset manager Futuregrowth, which holds a chunky 45% stake in PGE.

Picture: iSTOCK