From P10,000 to P375,000: 26 Years of Owning a Piece Of Sefalana
- kitsodickson
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
Updated: May 1
P10,000 which could fill your trolley with maize meal, can get buy a quiet slice of Sefalana. That slice would’ve grown into a full basket worth nearly P375,000.
Sefalana Group emerged in 1974 as a result of a takeover of Bechmalt Holdings Limited, a South African company consisting of 6 wholesale units and 1 maize mill.
It became the first publicly listed company in Botswana in 1975. In those early days, Sefalana shares were like dry seeds — small and cheap.
If you had bought P10,000 worth of shares of the company on January 4, 1999, your investment value would be sitting at P375,750 on April, 25 2025.
This is how:
Throwing it back to January 4, 1999
You walk into a Sefalana store with P10,000 in your pocket, planning to stock up on maize meal for your family. Imagine one big bag of maize meal cost P4.00 — the same as a share in Sefalana.
*Sefalana’s share price was trading at P4.00 on the day, according to data from the Botswana Stock Exchange. Note: This story assumes the price of one share mirrors the price of one bag of maize meal for illustrative purposes only.
1999:
Price per share: P4.00
Investment: P10,000
Shares bought: P10,000 ÷ P4.00 = 2,500 shares
With P10,000, you bought 2,500 bags of maize meal. If you were buying ownership instead, that same amount would have bought you 2,500 shares in Sefalana.
Now you load all those bags on your Mmaofit to take them home. You keep them safe — not eaten, not sold, just quietly stored away. Just like you would with shares after buying into a company.
It’s 2007
Now, fast forward to October 17, 2007. You hear that each bag of maize meal — once P4.00 — is now worth P34.00.
One share of Sefalana was also worth P34.00 on the same day, according to data from the BSE.
October 17, 2007 (before split):
Price per share: P34.00
Value: 2,500 × P34.00 = P85,000
Capital appreciation: P85,000 - P10,000 = P75,000
So, if you still had your 2,500 bags eight years later, they’d now be worth P85,000 — more than eight times what you paid.
That’s a P75,000 gain, just for storing the bags and waiting.
Now, imagine you had put that P10,000 into 2,500 shares instead. The value of your ownership in Sefalana would now be P85,000. Your P10,000 would have grown by P75,000 — in just eight years.
Turning 1 Bag into 10: The Maize Meal Split
On October 18, 2007, Sefalana did something even more interesting in their shop.
They opened each big bag of maize meal and divided it into 10 smaller bags so more people could afford to buy. Because a big bag cost P34.00 at that time, splitting each big bag into 10 equal portions meant each small bag was now priced at P3.40.
Imagine that at your house, you do the same:
Each of your 2,500 big bags is split into 10 small ones, giving you 25,000 small bags.
This is called a stock split, meaning if you had bought one piece of ownership of Sefalana, you now own 10 shares instead of 1. But the total value — P85,000 — stays the same, so you haven’t lost anything.
October 18, 2007 (after 10:1 stock split):
Stock split: 10:1 → 2,500 shares × 10 = 25,000 shares
New price per share: P34 ÷ 10 = P3.40
Value: 25,000 × P3.40 = P85,000 — value unchanged
It’s like cutting a big cake into smaller slices — you have more pieces, but the cake’s size doesn’t change.
So, your 2,500 shares became 25,000, while the price per share dropped to P3.40. The total value? Still P85,000.
A P365,000 Profit
One share of Sefalana is P14.99 as at 25th April 2025, according to the BSE.
Now imagine one bag of maize meal costs P14.99 — the same as one Sefalana share today.
Friday, April 25, 2025:
Current price per share: P14.99
Value: 25,000 × P14.99 = P374,750
If you still have your 25,000 bags of maize meals by April 2025, they are now worth about P374,750. If you sold them all, you would have made a profit of P364,750 on your original P10,000 investment.
Now imagine your basket filled with the fruits of that P10,000 investment you made 26 years ago. If you simply held onto your 25,000 shares — no buying, no selling — they’d now be worth about P374,750.
*This article does not account for dividend payments
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