Buildmax

This isn't really a "Venture Capital" type post, but more in the line of private equity transactions that ordinary SA investors may be interested.

Two of the top SA private equity players - Brait and Peregrine have stakes in JSE listed Buildmax.

The profile of Buildmax according to Sharenet is:

Buildmax has recently been repositioned as one of Africa?s leading empowered opencast mining contractors and the largest in South Africa in the niche of coal mining. The company further provides bulk earthworks and construction materials to the mining and construction industries. Specifically the Equipment - Services business unit is involved in opencast mining projects from greenfields stripping to mine closure and rehabilitation and offers bulk earthworks for civil engineering projects. The Construction Materials business unit houses sand quarry operations, aggregate distributors and cement brick and block manufacturers.

The Brait guys have been extremely bullish on the prospects for Buildmax based on their coal exposure and have recently taken a nice stake in the business. The theory is to follow the "Energy" type businesses as they try to meet SA's constantly growing need.

Buildmax is listed on the JSE and currently trades at around 95c a share. The company trades on an historical price to earnings (PE) ration of 4 times earnings.

If it is good enough for the top private equity guys it might be good enough for the ordinary investment plebs like me!