Investors who participated in the private placement of asset manager Sygnia almost doubled their money on its first day of trade on Wednesday, with the share price ending 82% higher at R15.30 from its placement price of R8.40.
Investors who participated in the private placement of asset manager Sygnia almost doubled their money on its first day of trade on Wednesday, with the share price ending 82% higher at R15.30 from its placement price of R8.40.
Sygnia’s JSE debut saw more than R62m worth of shares trading, reaching an intraday high of R16.75 and a low of R13.
Vunani Securities analyst Anthony Clark said on Wednesday he expected Sygnia’s share price to reach R18 within a year.
The company raised R262m through its private placement, which it intends using to develop its product set and software. It may also consider some small bolt-on acquisitions.
Sygnia sold 31.2-million shares to a number of institutional and retail investors including black economic empowerment shareholders. The placement offer attracted subscriptions for 19.8 times the shares available.
Sygnia has about R140bn in assets under management.
“We are going to put some money into marketing, we have got some interesting products that we are going to launch and we might make some acquisitions,” Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka said on Wednesday.
“We want to launch low-costs umbrella funds, and to grow the umbrella fund proposition we might need an acquisition.”
Ms Wierzycka said as a listed entity the maiden dividend will be paid in March next year and the dividend cover will be two-and-a-half to three times.
Sygnia made profit after tax of R57m for the year to the end of September.