Optasia, AI-enabled fintech business, listing on the JSE. Worth buying?

🌍 Worldwide Markets Ep. 653 – Gold Crashes, Markets Burn, and Optasia’s JSE Listing

🎙️ Hosted by Simon Brown
📅 Recorded: Tuesday, 21 October 2025
📈 Powered by Standard Bank Global Markets, Retail & Shyft – The global money app that puts travel, shopping, payments and investments in the palm of your hand.

💥 Local Markets Crushed

A brutal day on the JSE as the market closed down 2.5%, with resources tumbling 7.8% despite a steady rand (R17.43).

Gold miners collapsed: Implats & Sibanye -10%, Gold Fields & Harmony -9%, AngloGold* -8%.
PGMs also fell hard: Northam & Impala down over 7%.
Retail pain: TFG* dropped a shocking 16.6% after a poor trading update, dragging down Pepkor, Mr Price*, and even WeBuyCars.
U.S. markets were red but only mildly so — calm compared to SA’s bloodbath.
See Simon Tweet here.

🪙 Gold: After 9 Green Weeks, the Pullback Arrives

Gold finally broke its 10-week winning streak, plunging from $4,378 to $4,122 — a $250 drop in two days 😬

Simon notes this was inevitable after nine straight weeks of gains.
Likely short-term support around $3,950–$4,000, with potential consolidation below $4,000.
Despite the scare, the Satrix Resi is still up over 100% for 2025.
💡 Lesson: even in a bull run, sharp corrections are part of the journey.

Gold weekly | 22 October 2025

🧠 Optasia: AI Fintech Listing on the JSE

A major new listing — Optasia (code: OPA) — is set to debut 3 November.
Valued at around R20–25 billion, it’s one of the largest fintech listings in years.

Key Facts:

Business: Micro-loans & airtime credit to the unbanked and underbanked.
Reach: 38 markets (Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe).
Scale:
- 120 million customers/month
- 32 million loans/day
- $13m total daily loan value
Average loan: $5 (microfinance) and $0.25 (airtime credit)
Defaults: impressively low at 1.14% 💪
Backers: Standard Bank, RMB, EcoBank, MTN, Vodacom, Airtel, Zain, and more.
Listing price range: R15.50–R19.00 per share.
Lockup: 180 days for sellers, 365 for directors.
Existing shareholder exit: Ethos Capital (EPE) partially selling down.

Simon’s Take 🎯

Solid business with real revenue and strong growth (≈90% YoY in 2025H1).
But… valuation not cheap (PE ≈ mid-20s).
Concerns over allocation uncertainty and currency/regulatory risks in frontier markets.
💬 Verdict: “I’m not applying — great business, fair valuation, but not compelling enough.”

🚗 **CMH* (Combined Motor Holdings): Excellent Results & Share Buyback**

Vehicle sales hit their highest levels since 2015, and CMH delivered stellar numbers 🚙💨

Headline earnings: +25%
No dividend this time, but a 15% share buyback instead.
Strong exposure to Indian & Chinese brands (nearly 50% of sales) plus Suzuki, now SA’s #2 brand.
Legacy luxury brands are struggling.
Historic returns:
- Share price last decade: 12%
- Dividend yield last decade: ~10%
- Combined ≈ 22% annual shareholder return over the past decade! 📊

The Twist

Founder Jeb McIntosh (79) may be looking to gradually exit — Simon suspects the buyback could facilitate this.
Still, Simon’s holding: “I’m not selling — unless they offer me a crazy price.”

🏦 Upcoming Event: Standard Bank Client Migration

📢 Important for OST, WebTrader, and AutoShare Invest clients:
Standard Bank is migrating investment clients to Shift.
Join Simon Brown and Adishan from Standard Bank on Tuesday, 28 October, 5:30 PM (Rosebank or Webcast).
🔗 Register at justonelap.com/events

💬 Final Thoughts

Markets can be messy, but knowledge is power.
Simon wraps up with his usual reminder:

“Look after yourself — and if you can, look after somebody else too.” ❤️

🔑 Episode Summary

🪙 Gold’s epic run ends with a sharp pullback.
📉 JSE hammered by resources & retailers.
🤖 Optasia brings fintech AI excitement to the JSE.
🚗 CMH delivers strong results and a massive buyback.
🏦 Big changes coming for Standard Bank investing clients.

Simon Brown

* I hold ungeared positions.

All charts by KoyFin | Get 10% off your order

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Wednesdays are all about hard-core investing and trading with Simon Brown’s famous JSE Direct podcast. JSE Direct started life on ClassicFM in July 2008 and became a podcast in 2011. Every week Simon shares his views on the state of global economies, individual shares and events moving markets.

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