One South African stock tripled investors’ money in 2024
Quantum Foods was one of the top-performing stocks on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2024. Its share price increased by over 240% year-to-date.
Quantum Foods is a diversified feeds and poultry business providing animal feeds and poultry products to South African and selected African markets.
It has two main operating units, which have a strong position in the South African market.
- Nova Feeds provides scientifically formulated feeds to the South African market. It also exports to neighbouring countries.
- Nulaid, the egg-layer division of Quantum Foods, is the largest egg producer in South Africa.
Quantum Foods also owns the rights to import pedigree grandparent broiler stock of the Cobb 500 breed.
Through this agreement, it supplies next-generation parent stock for its own requirements and non-exclusively for customers in other countries in Africa.
Quantum Foods’ share price has been relatively flat for a decade. However, it changed this year with a big jump.
Its share price rally started between 5 March and 7 March 2024, when it increased 73% from R5.32 to R9.20.
The share price increase resulted from Country Bird Holdings (CBH) buying 9.77% of Quantum Foods from Astral Foods at R7.25 per share.
Country Bird Holdings is one of Africa’s largest poultry and animal feed producers, with operations in Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Two days later, on 7 March, a significant number of shares were traded, the highest price being R9.20 per share.
On March 8, Quantum Foods received notification from CBH of its intention to buy even more shares of Quantum Foods.
At the time of the announcement, CBH had already accumulated 15.8% of Quantum Foods’ shares in issue. CBH stated that it had no intention of taking over Quantum Foods.
This corporate action saw Quantum Foods’ share price reach R9.80, almost 80% higher than where it was on 5 March before CBH started buying.

Boardroom battle and big share purchases
In March, after the share price increase, Quantum Foods said Braemar Trading, holding around 30.8% of its shares, demanded to call a shareholders meeting.
The aim was to remove chairman Wouter Hanekom and directors Gary-Vaughn Smith and Wilson Riddle from the board.
Braemar Trading wanted to appoint their nominee, Hamish Bryan Wilburn Rudland, to the Quantum Foods board.
Two days after this announcement, Gary Vaughn-Smith purchased R11.51 million of Quantum Foods shares off-market at R7.75 per share. On this date, the market price was R9.00 per share.
Three dates later, Wouter Hanekom purchased R3.85 million in Quantum Foods shares at R9.00 per share.
In the two following weeks, Wouter Hanekom purchased a further R7.79 million Quantum Foods shares between R9.00 and R10.00 per share on and off-market.
After these trades were concluded, Quantum Foods’ share price was R13.50 per share. It increased to over R18 per share in April.
Since this abnormal activity in the market, the share price has steadily decreased to R7.20 in September.
At the end of July, Quantum Foods announced that CBH demanded that a shareholders’ meeting be called to remove three directors.
CBH wanted to remove Wouter André Hanekom, Geoffrey George Fortuin, and Pieter Francois Theron from Quantum Foods’ board
After the shareholder meeting, none of the directors were removed. The Quantum Foods share price jumped from R7.90 to just under R13 per share.
Quantum Foods’ financial performance
Since 2018, Quantum Foods has grown its revenue at an average growth rate of 7.9%
The avian influenza outbreak in South Africa severely influenced the group’s revenue in the last interim period, causing it to fall by almost 13%.
Its profitability has been less successful over this period, and the group’s net profits have been steeply declining.
In the interim period, the group has delivered its strongest profitability result since 2021, reporting a R44 million net profit.


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