One South African tech share showed exceptional growth in 2022
In 2022, Alviva was South Africa’s top-performing technology company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), with a share price growth of 64%.
Alviva’s share price increase was fuelled by a consortium of investors offering to buy out shareholders in a R2.5 billion deal.
The consortium members include Tham Investments, Peregrine Capital’s Day One Asset Management, and Alviva managers.
Members of the consortium already own a significant portion of the company and offered R28.00 per share for the stake they do not own. The share price jumped 10% on news of the offer.
The deal will see Alviva delisting from the JSE, following other tech companies like Adapt IP and Alaris.
Another South African tech company whose share price performed well as part of a delisting deal was Etion.
Last year, Etion shareholders were offered 55.58c per share as part of a deal to delist the company and unlock shareholder value. Etion’s share price increased by 62% last year.
On the other end of the scale, EOH’s share price declined by 44% in 2022 due to poor performance and a rights offer.
EOH’s share price plummeted by 30% following the release of its annual results and details about its planned rights issue. It has recovered somewhat since then.
On 26 October 2022, after the markets closed, EOH released its financial results for the year ended 31 July 2022 and its annual integrated report.
EOH tried to position the latest results as a turnaround story, with a 92% increase in operating profit and a 91% improvement in total loss per share.
However, delving deeper into EOH’s numbers revealed that all was not well at the company.
Over the last four years, revenue declined by 63% from R16.3 billion to R6.0 billion, and operating profit declined 84% from R977 million to R159 million.
The biggest concern was the decline in net equity, which plummeted 99% from R8.1 billion to R60 million.
To address the dismal state of its balance sheet, EOH is planning to raise up to R600 million through a R500 million rights issue and a R100 million BBBEE deal.
The proceeds will be used to settle most of the bridge facility, and EOH believes it will leave it with a sustainable capital structure.
The table below shows the performance of JSE-listed technology companies in 2022.
| Name | Share price 1 January 2022 | Share price 31 December 2022 | Change |
| Alviva | R16.60 | R27.16 | 63.61% |
| Etion | R0.34 | R0.55 | 61.76% |
| Cognition | R0.68 | R0.95 | 39.71% |
| PBT Group | R7.75 | R9.85 | 27.10% |
| Naspers | R2472.00 | R2824.34 | 14.25% |
| Mustek | R13.30 | R14.39 | 8.20% |
| Altron | R9.15 | R9.22 | 0.77% |
| Prosus | R1309.74 | R1177.76 | -10.08% |
| Capital Appreciation | R1.70 | R1.50 | -11.76% |
| Datatec | R38.50 | R31.00 | -19.48% |
| Karooooo | R535.00 | R400.01 | -25.23% |
| Bytes Technology Group | R122.05 | R78.85 | -35.40% |
| EOH | R6.83 | R3.80 | -44.36% |
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