MARC HASENFUSS: The trouble with Trustco
The extreme price volatility in Trustco’s shares over the past few weeks is causing some consternation — even outrage — on social media
The extreme price volatility in Trustco’s shares over the past few weeks is causing some consternation — even outrage — on social media. Trustco, readers may remember, is already subject to a market manipulation investigation by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) for share trades between November 2017 and February 2018. In that period Trustco’s shares lurched from around 500c to as high as 990c on news that major shareholder Riskowitz Value Fund (RVF) had bought 20% of the group’s Legal Shield subsidiary for a whopping R1.2bn. At a stretch, RVF’s willingness to (over?) pay top dollar for Legal Shield could be cited as a catalyst for a strong run in Trustco’s shares. But the share price movements at the end of June this year are baffling and illogical – and, frankly, so suspicious in nature that it would be damn near impossible for the FSCA not to open another market-manipulation investigation. The key trade transpired on Friday June 29, the last trading day of that month ...
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