The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) data shows that 70.8 percent of stock turnover in 2013 was generated from trades in Letshego, Choppies, Stanchart, FNBB and BIHL. Sunday Standard reviews the top five performers at BSE in 2013 and considers the factors that could have contributed positively to the outstanding performances of these respective companies.
LETSHEGO
In 2013, Letshego Holdings Limited, the pan African micro lender continued with its endeavour to move into the banking arena, but said it prefers to take the transactional model rather than the conventional large operation that normally include corporate banking.
“The idea is to move from the consumer lending model into a wider financial institution but without necessarily hurting the current business model”, said Jan Claassen, Letshego Holdings’ former Managing Director, now a board member.
The Botswana domiciled consumer lender, has been successful as a lender of unsecured loans since it was established in Botswana in 1998 and managed to copy the model into other countries in the African continent.
Letshego has cash reserves of P220 million and have the largest capital adequacy compared to competitors in the financial services sector.
The Chris Low led financial entity contributed P519.8 million in turnover at the Botswana Stock Exchange in 2013 alone. By close of business at BSE on Thursday its stock was trading at 235 thebe.
CHOPPIES
Choppies, the retail giant listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) in January last year after receiving BSE’s approval to float 1.2 billion shares on the domestic main board.
With a market share above 30 percent, the company continues its regional expansion programme and recently acquired a 49 percent stake in a retail business in Zimbabwe.
The retailer pulled a massive feat when it acquired the Supasave (Pty) Ltd retail chain and its warehousing division Megasave (Pty) Ltd for just over P42 million. Though the takeover was challenged by one of its competitors, Shoppers retail chain at the High Court, Sefalana Holdings managers later decided to withdraw the case. The company contributed a turnover of P412.5 million its second year of trading at the BSE.
STANCHART
Standard Chartered Bank Botswana (SCBB) has managed to maintain sustainable and consistent financial growth despite the current global economic conditions.
Classified under the top five commercial banks in the country, Stanchart released a good set of financial results and has been very active recently reflecting investor’s appetite for its stock. At the time of the last trading clock at BSE on Thursday its stock was valued at 1170 thebe. Stanchart also traded notable volumes in shares worth P367.7 million.
FNBB
Another bank which forms part of the top eight banks in the country also continues to outclass its peers both in the banking sector and capital markets. In most trading sessions, FNBB was on a positive footing releasing a good set of full year results despite operating under low interest rate environment.
In September, the Global Trade Review voted the South African originating bank as the best Trade
