Top of the rankings, with a five-year internal rate of return (IRR) higher than 100%, is Messina.
This company has been around for almost a century and has had various owners. It is now 70%-owned by Canadian company Southern Era Mining. But it's almost impossible to buy the stocks; only 63 000 shares on average trade in a month.
Messina is the holding company for Messina Platinum Mines, which owns and operates a platinum-group metals mine in Limpopo province. The mine was mothballed from 1992 until 2001 and has been producing since then. The company pays no tax as it has large offsets from the past.
Messina has thus benefited considerably from the run in the platinum price and the weakness of the rand in 2001 and 2002.
And investors (or, more accurately, speculators) were well aware of what could happen . The tightness of the shareholding meant the share would rise significantly on thin volumes. And that's exactly what happened.
In early 2001, it was trading at R13. By the end of 2002, it had reached R100, an almost eightfold increase. Little wonder, then, that it heads the league of Top Performers.
The current share price is over R55 but it will probably remain a favourite with the small professional punter, especially if the platinum price remains strong and the rand doesn't strengthen further.
Second-placed Mvelaphanda Holdings (Mvela), with an IRR of 92%, at least achieved this on reasonable volume, an average of 1,8m shares a month changing hands. Mvela's genesis was the old East Dagga, a dump-treatment operation into which the company reversed last year. Mvela now consists of stakes in Trans Hex, Northam Platinum, the East Dagga operations, 15% of Gold Fields, Broll Properties and a recently acquired stake in Abvest. Were it not for the high debt levels, Mvela could well head the list.
