The share opened strongly at 120 cents, 20 cents higher than its placement price of 100 cents and was trading at 139 cents at 13:00 with over 7 million shares being traded.

RBA specialises in turnkey affordable housing.  The company builds fully bonded homes ranging between R250 000 to R750 000 and 40 to 80m2 in size.  These homes are differentiated from low cost housing in terms of size, cost and funding.

Since its establishment in 1997, RBA has built more that 5 000 houses. RBA is currently busy with 20 projects, 65% of which are in Johannesburg, 30% in Tshwane and 5% in Polokwane. Over 1000 houses are expected to be completed in 2007 with over 1200 houses expected to be completed during the 12 months up to the end of 2008.

David Wentzel, RBA’s Chief Executive said: “We are delighted to be listed on AltX.  Our strategy is to use the capital proceeds to expand and address the current national shortage of 650 000 homes in the affordable housing bracket. We are proud that South Africa’s top institutions are as confident as we are in our business model and vision and that our shares have been so well received by the investment community. ”

RBA Holdings has forecast revenues of R235m and R306m for 31 December 2007 and 2008 respectively and profit attributable to the Group of R 35,5m and R46,5m for the same periods. Audited revenues for 2006 were R176m and profit after tax was R19m.

A total of R65m was raised during the private placing, which was substantially oversubscribed.  At the current share price the company’s market capitalisation is around R431 million with 310 million shares in issue.