Four companies join JSE’s Top40 club

MINING companies Sibanye Gold and Gold Fields yesterday joined with Life Healthcare and Bidvest to become part of the JSE Top40 index, following an uptick in their market capitalisation.

The four companies were included in the index, which has a combined market capitalisation of R9.2 trillion. This represented more than 61 percent of the total market capitalisation of all JSE-listed companies.

Mark Randall, the JSE’s indices manager, said the bourse made the decision to adopt the free float adjusted market capitalisation approach.

“This means that the JSE Top40 index moves from a Top40 “largest company” index to a Top40 “most investable company index”, he said.

The inclusion follows the rebalancing of the JSE quarterly index earlier this month and the next revision is expected in December.

Capitec Bank, Rand Merchant Investment Holdings, Anglo American Platinum, Capital and Countries Properties have fallen off the index.

Of the four companies, Sibanye has had a short history on the JSE after listing in February 2013 with a market cap of R10 billion to R45.2bn to date.

Sibanye’s chief financial officer, Charl Keyter, said the inclusion on the Top40 was a vote of confidence from the company’s shareholders and was a credit to employees who worked in the company’s underground shafts.

“Three and-a-half years ago we stood in front of this very JSE screen to begin our journey as South Africa’s mining champion,” Keyter said.

“We set ourselves a target of being a leading dividend payer. We have seen our share price grow 400 percent, and returned R3.5bn in dividends to shareholders,” he said.

Sibanye will rank as the world’s fourth largest platinum group metals (PGMs) producer by 2017 after acquiring Anglo American Platinum’s Rustenburg operations and Aquarius.

The acquisitions are expected to deliver combined reserves of 32.2 million ounces of PGMs and resources of 103.8 million ounces.

Keyter said Sibanye was expected to have an estimated 70 000 employees on its books once its acquisition of Anglo American Platinum’s Rustenburg operations had been finalised. “We currently have 35 000 employees, and we will have an additional 15 000 once the deal has been concluded,” he said.

André Meyer, the chief executive at Life Healthcare, South Africa’s second-largest private hospital provider after Netcare, said the inclusion in the JSE Top40 was gratifying.

“The JSE’s change in focus from a Top40 ‘largest company’ index to a Top40 ‘most investable company’ index is particularly gratifying since it recognises the underlying quality of the Life Healthcare Group and positions the business as a superior investment opportunity.”

He said Life Healthcare was ranked as the 51st largest company in the JSE all share index in the September 2016 quarterly index review with a market capitalisation of R41.27bn.

“However, in the Top40 index, where the largest investable companies are now represented according to free float adjusted market capitalisation, Life Healthcare now ranks 39th, hence its inclusion in the index,” he said.

Services, trading and distribution company, Bidvest listed on the JSE in 1990 in the industrials board, while Gold Fields listed in 1968 on the basic materials sector of the Main Board – back then the JSE did not have AltX.