The decision by Altron last year to separately list its UK business, Bytes, resulted in a stunning unlock of value for shareholders. Ahead of that announcement, where existing shareholders would receive shares in Bytes Technology Group, its market value was around R8 billion. Fast forward to February 2021 and Altron’s market cap was R4.6 billion, while Bytes was valued at just under R20 billion. The board and management had managed to turn R7.4 billion into R24.4 billion, and there is more to come, according to CEO Mteto Nyati.

He says the board had seen ‘an opportunity and decided to go ahead and execute on it’. However, he admits that a number of people were sceptical about the timing. “We had done our maths and the necessary assessment of the market and we had a good result.” Given the result, in retrospect, perhaps Altron’s valuation of its UK Bytes business was a little too conservative.