May 18, 2015 — Fishing conglomerate Oceana, which is set to announce a deal in the US shortly, saw its share plunging more than 14% on Friday after reporting a drop in interim earnings to end March.
The company, though, netted a much bigger profit haul from its key Lucky Star canned fish brand. Results released at the weekend showed Oceana’s canned fish and fishmeal division made a 13% increase in turnover to R1.58bn. This amounted to a 34% hike in operating profit of R167m. Although the canned fish and fishmeal division accounts for more than 60% of Oceana’s revenue, the company still reported its bottom line down 11% after the horse mackerel segment was hampered by a scarcity of fish in local waters.
Horse mackerel has, in recent years, been a strong performer for Oceana. But this time the hake and horse mackerel segment saw profits down a hefty 46% to R108m, with Oceana CEO Francois Kuttell reporting the company incurred additional costs in having to buy in additional horse mackerel to maintain appropriate overall quota requirements.