The three day week that followed the President’s Day and Public Holiday, was the shortest week on the exchange for the year, but managed to deliver the biggest deal of the year, and the second largest trading day on the BSE.
The deal saw 142.2 million shares, 23.5% of the issued shares in NAP, valued at P456.45 million exchange hands on Wednesday, as the largest shareholder unwinds their position on the stock. Following last year’s disposal of 156 million (25.7%) the director’s interest in the company is down to just 30.5% from 79.9% just over a year ago.
At the moment we can only speculate on who the underlying buyers are, as most of the shares were grabbed by fund managers. This would also means that there is no fundamental change to the companies operation, just the shareholding structure. Most importantly the free float on the stock has improved to just over 69%, placing it among the top three companies on BSE.
The stock has seen steady growth in price since listing in August 2011, at P2.00 per share, and has grown by over 60% since then. On an annualised basis, that constitutes 8.2% year in year out, excluding dividends.
Super Wednesday also saw a large BIHL trade that saw the stock rise 7 thebe higher to close at a new 12 month high of P18.85 after 1.3 million shares crossed the board. For the week three companies retreated by a thebe, among them NAP, which closed at P3.21, Letshego closed at P2.08 while Sefalana closed at P11.15 just a week ahead of the release of their financial results.
The Domestic Company Index fell 0.02% for the week to close at 9,206.55, 2.09% lower since the start of the year. The Foreign company index was unchanged at 1,581.70. (Motswedi Securities)