Our opinion on the current state of GPL

Grand Parade Investments (GPL) is an investment holding company with interests in the gaming industry. The company is a BEE company which was listed on the JSE in 2008. It decided to terminate its Dunkin' Doughnuts and Baskin Robbins franchises in February 2019 and Burger King in February 2020. It had sold its remaining 10% in the Spur Corporation back to Spur in June 2019. On 15th June 2022, the company announced that it had unbundled its 9.28% shareholding in Spur on the basis that shareholders in GPL received 1 Spur share for every 56 GPL shares that they held on Friday 10th June 2022 (the unbundling record date).

In its results for the six months to 31st December 2022, the company reported revenue dropped to R3.8m from R8.4m in the previous period and headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased to 9.9c from the 4.8c in the previous period. The company said, "The performance was driven primarily by the continued improvement of the hospitality sector and the associated performance of the Group’s gaming investments coupled with a reduction in corporate head office costs over the period."

On 20th October 2022, the share gave a strong on-balance volume (OBV) buy signal and it was rumored that it might be the subject of a takeover. On 25th October 2022, the company reported that GBM Liquidity, a private company, had bought a 27.88% stake in the company. That has now been increased further to 35.14%. Then on 11th November 2022, the company announced that Sun International had increased its holding to 10.56%. The share gave another strong OBV buy signal on 8th November 2022 at 330c. Clearly, something was going on.

On 11th April 2023, the company announced that GBM Liquidity Corporation (a family trust of Greg Bortz) had obtained control with 53.65% of the company's issued capital. In a trading statement for the six months to 31st December 2023, the company estimated that HEPS would increase by between 11% and 31% compared with the previous year.