Rain and Tyme Group are major focus areas, but Kropz Plc is hungry for capital
African Rainbow Capital Investments (ARC Investments) reported an intrinsic net asset value (INAV) of R11.15 per share as at the end of December 2023. This was up 12.9% year-on-year but down 2.3% from the interim period.
During the year, the group raised equity capital of R750 million. Debt in the fund was reduced by 21% to R1.775 billion and further investments were made in Rain (R81 million), Tyme Group (R76 million) and Kropz Plc (R379 million).
Both TymeBank and Linebooker reached breakeven in the past six months. Philippines-based GOtyme reached 2 million customers within 13 months.
A lot of work has been done to make the portfolio simpler, with the top 12 investments now contributing 89% of the portfolio value.
Rain is 27.2% of the fund value, with EBITDA of over R2 billion for the year ended February 2024 expected. Tyme Group is 20.3% of fund value, with breakeven achieved in December 2023 and sustained profitability expected. Kropz is 11.3% of fund value and mining is never an easy game, with the ramp-up of mining operations progressing slower than anticipated and an impairment recognised on this investment. Alexforbes is 6.6% of the fund value and has been doing well recently.
Aside from Kropz that is starting to look like an increasingly deep hole for capital, things are looking up at the group. At some point, Tyme Group will surely be IPOd on a growth-friendly market like the Nasdaq. If we are really lucky, the JSE might even get some of that action, giving us a rare thing on our market: a genuine growth asset.
