Executive changes at the JSE’s three fishing companies have been taking place at a rate of knots.
Whether top executives are jumping ship because of choppy waters in the fishing industry or the development is merely coincidental is difficult to fathom.
But the fact that the CEOs and finance directors (FDs) of Premier Fishing & Brands (PremFish), Oceana Group and Sea Harvest have unexpectedly stepped down could worry some investors.
The fishing industry — a politically charged sector in terms of ownership and catch quotas — has been facing prolonged uncertainty around the fishing rights allocation process. The process — originally scheduled for 2020 — has been delayed to allow new environment, forestry & fisheries minister Barbara Creecy to familiarise herself with the industry.
It has been widely speculated that larger fishing groups stand to lose slabs of their current catch quota to smaller, community-based fishing enterprises.
More immediately, fishing companies — especially those that angle in the export-orientated lobster, abalone and squid markets — have also faced challenges in marketing their catch especially in the Far East, due to the disruptive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Locally, there have been drastic quota cuts in certain species like hake, forcing fish canners to import the bulk of their fish.
The most recent executive shake-up involves Sea Harvest, where CFO John Paul de Freitas unexpectedly stepped down this month. According to Sea Harvest, De Freitas, who had served as CFO since 2014, resigned to pursue "personal interests".
De Freitas will be replaced by Muhammad Brey, who previously served as chief investment officer at Sea Harvest. Brey is the nephew of Mustaq Brey, the empowerment pioneer who is CEO of Brimstone Investment Corp, the major shareholder in Sea Harvest.
De Freitas had played a key role in Sea Harvest over the past six years, including the listing of the company on the JSE and managing key acquisitions like Viking Fishing and Ladismith Cheese.
Fishing industry sources were surprised at his departure, with some speculating that he opted to jump ship even though a role in Sea Harvest’s Australian operations was offered as an incentive to remain on board.
Sources did point out that Brey was "highly regarded", and brought a "more strategic" angle to the FD role. Brey has considerable fishing sector experience and was in charge of Brimstone’s fishing interests, which include Sea Harvest and Oceana.
The consensus from fishing industry sources is that Sea Harvest was perhaps too small to accommodate both De Freitas and Brey in executive financial roles.
PremFish also saw an equally surprising departure in February, when respected CEO Samir Saban resigned for "personal reasons".
An unofficial version is that Saban was keen to pursue a career in Islamic investing. Understandably there was also speculation that the controversies around Iqbal Survé-controlled African Equity Empowerment Investments, PremFish’s majority shareholder, might have informed Saban’s decision to step down.
Saban was replaced by company stalwart Rushaan Isaacs, who had previously served as sales and marketing director. Isaacs, who was already an executive director, has been with PremFish for more than two decades.
Like De Freitas, Saban played a big role in steering PremFish to a JSE listing and was instrumental in the group clinching the game-changing acquisition of a controlling stake in the Talhado squid business in late 2017.
He also built a formidable south coast lobster niche and launched an ambitious abalone farming venture.
The third executive change came at the end of January, when Oceana said CFO Elton Bosch resigned to pursue other business interests.
Bosch, who previously served at beverages giant Clover, did not last a year at Oceana. He was appointed CFO in June 2019 — about a year after previous CFO Imraan Soomra was appointed CEO (who, in turn, had replaced Francois Kuttel).
Oceana has not yet identified a replacement, and company stalwart Trevor Giles is serving as interim CFO.
Giles, who has been with Oceana for almost 20 years, previously served as interim CFO two years ago when Soomra took the helm.
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