Recent sharp increases in Prism`s share price led the group to issue a cautionary notice last night acknowledging that the price movements have been "abnormal".
The share closed at 105c on the JSE yesterday, up 6c or 6.1% on Monday`s close, after touching a high of 110c during the day.
The share, which opened the year at 71c, reached 88c on 13 January after the group issued a positive trading update, and has continued an upward trend since then.
According to last night`s cautionary notice, "From time to time the company has received approaches by parties interested in acquiring all or part of the company`s shares and/or all or part of the company`s business."
It adds: "Given that there has been abnormal movement in the price of the company`s shares and in the volume of the company`s shares traded on the JSE Limited, which may or may not be the consequence of the trading statement issued on 13 January 2006, the board considers it prudent to advise shareholders or potential investors in the company to exercise caution when dealing in the company`s shares."
CEO Alvin Els says the notice does not mean Prism is in formal negotiations. He says the increases in the share price led the group to take advice from its attorneys and sponsoring broker, who advised it to publish the cautionary notice.
In terms of the Securities Regulation Panel Code, a company is required to issue such a notice when there are material moves in the share price and the company has been in discussions.
"As the cautionary notice says, we do get approached from time to time, and we discuss things, but that doesn`t mean we get into formal negotiations. So the question was whether we had been having discussions, and the answer to that was 'Yes`."
However, he stresses that the cautionary was triggered by the share price movements - which may be caused by overspeculation - rather than to discussions.
The share was trading at 105c this morning after 2.65 million shares changed hands in 67 deals. Earlier in the morning the share was trading at 111c.
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