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Two words: Fish. Farming.
A year ago, International Holdings IHC, +6.55% was worth about $133 million. Now, its market value has reached an eye-popping $14 billion, thanks to a 2,819% explosion that Bloomberg News says makes it the top performer of all billion-dollar companies over the past year.
Apparently, the Abu Dhabi investment company, pandemic and oil implosion be damned, gets most of its revenue from farming fish in the United Arab Emirates. Its stunning rise makes IHC the fifth-biggest listed group in the UAE, behind the likes of First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates.
Bloomberg News, however, had a difficult time explaining what’s really going on there.
“At the end of last year, the company had total assets of only about $1.1 billion, with net profit for the year at $138 million,” Bloomberg reporter Filipe Pacheco wrote. “It has been on a buying spree since the start of 2019, although none of the acquisitions had big price tags.”
The mysterious surge comes amid extremely low volumes, with an average of only about 31 trades a day taking place in the stock over the past 12 months.
Last month, the stock, in consecutive double-digit rallies, tacked $2.2 billion to IHC’s market cap in just two sessions. The company’s reasoning behind the move didn’t exactly answer many questions.
IHC said the gains were a result of an increase in demand (bid) and lack of orders (ask) in the market. The statement also reaffirmed IHC’s commitment to the disclosure “of all events that may affect the share price, and comply with all governance controls and transparency.”
Widely held, the stock clearly isn’t. A mere 13 shareholders, including an Abu Dhabi royal who serves as the company’s chairman, controlled 97% of its shares at the end of 2019.
