I was rather taken by the wide-ranging trading statement issued by Uitenhage-based poultry business Sovereign last week.It was not so much the span of the earnings numbers that interested me — though these are critical for shareholders, considering larger competitor Country Bird Holdings (CBH) already has its talons firmly in the shareholder register. What caught my eye was the rambling commentary dedicated to the Hartbeespoort abattoir, which Sovereign acquired from Quantum Foods for R120m last year.Readers may remember that Chris Schutte, the CEO of Astral Foods (the big bird of the JSE’s poultry sector), spoke rather disparagingly about the Harties production facility in the context of a recent AGM where he was quizzed about possible consolidation in the poultry sector. Let me remind you that Schutte contended Sovereign would need to invest another R40m in the Harties facility, a drain on cash by an asset that might not offer an attractive payback for many years.In what appeared ...
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