How AYO’s share price unravelled

Iqbal Survé’s businesses seem uncomfortably incestuous, given that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority is investigating possible share manipulation at all three of his listed companies. In a Daily Maverick analysis, Dewald van Rensburg notes that on 19 January, a remarkable thing happened to the share price of Survé’s controversial AYO Technology Solutions. ‘After holding steady at just above R22 for three months, the share suddenly collapsed, spiralling to the current level of R9. It just so happens that 19 January was the day a downside protection agreement with the PIC ended. This agreement lasted three months from 19 October and would have penalised AYO if its share price fell below R22. This might just be happenstance. It could also be that someone was buying shares at a price needed to avoid triggering the downside protection agreement and then stopped when the danger passed.’ Van Rensburg points out that by far the largest buyers of AYO shares during this period were Survé’s family investment company Sekunjalo Investment Holdings – as well as his boutique asset management company, 3 Laws Capital. ‘Other activity came from a company linked to his brother-in-law, Khalid Abdulla. These dealings in AYO shares are outside the purview of the Mpati Commission of inquiry into the PIC, which has been examining the PIC’s R4.3bn investment in AYO. However, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is investigating possible share manipulation between May and October 2018 at all three of Iqbal Survé’s companies listed on the JSE: AYO, African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI) and Premier Fishing.’