Group Five’s share price doubles on hopes of acquisition

13-12-2018
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BusinessDay
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A number of parties have expressed interest in buying parts of the JSE’s worst performer in 2018

Group Five’s share price doubled to 48c on Thursday morning from Wednesday’s closing price of 24c after it announced it had attracted interest from numerous suitors.

“Shareholders are advised that Group Five has received expressions of interest from a number of parties for various parts of the group’s business,” Thursday morning’s statement said.

On Wednesday, the construction group announced it had appointed Anthony Clacher as CFO, replacing Cristina Teixeira whose resignation was announced in its 2018 financial results released in October.

The construction group described its new CFO as having “significant experience in restructurings, asset disposals and challenging business environments”.

Group Five’s share price has plummeted from R14.25 in January to about 25c over the year as its losses from a disastrous contract to build a power station in Ghana mounted.

The Kpone power station project in Ghana contributed the bulk of the group’s R1.3bn net loss for the year to end-June.

Group Five’s 98% annual plunge makes it an even worse performer than Steinhoff International, which has fallen 81%.

On December 6 2018, Group Five’s share price fell 26% to 25c after it announced its client in Ghana, Cenpower, had filed an additional claim of $60.5m for its failure to complete its Kpone power station project on time.