PIONEER FOODS: Shake-up spooks the market
As the food group faces a tough second half, uncertainty around the CEO’s sudden resignation has also taken a toll
To say the news that Phil Roux will vacate his position as Pioneer Foods group CEO at the end of the month caught the market completely off guard would be an understatement. It sent the food group’s price crashing and provided a field day for rumour-mongers. They contrived a myriad possible reasons and, in the process, created what is a potentially outstanding opportunity to buy Pioneer stock. Some asked whether Roux, the highly respected CEO since April 2013, had been given the boot by the board. Or was there an impasse on strategy between Roux and the board, which is heavily influenced by PSG? PSG’s influence is through its 34.6% in Zeder, which has a 27% stake in Pioneer. There are sound reasons to support both possibilities. For one, Pioneer’s headline EPS, hit by losses on maize futures, slumped 56% in the six months to March. The same or worse is set to come in the second half. The other possibility was a fallout with PSG over what, in March, had been termed a "material [offsh...
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