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Cape Town - Has Paarl-based consumer brands giant Pioneer Foods seen its first casualty from the bread fixing price scandal?
Late on Friday, Pioneer issued a Stock Exchange News Service (Sens) announcement regarding the resignation of executive director, Tertius Swanepoel.
Interestingly, the resignation of Swanepoel, who served as Pioneer's marketing executive, was back-dated to February 28 this year.
Certain segments of the market have been anticipating a board-shake-up at Pioneer in the wake of the bread price fixing scandal. The question now is whether any more executives will follow Swanepoel?
The terse Sens announcement, released well after the JSE closed, provided no reasons for Swanepoel stepping down. Pioneer's annual report shows that Swanepoel (55) has been with the company for over 20 years, and was appointed an executive director in February 2003.
Many market pundits have suggested the bread price fixing scandal, which could still touch Pioneer's pockets for more than official R195m fine issued by the Competition Tribunal, would rattle the company's board.
Lately there have been increasingly audible calls from various quarters - including certain large shareholders - for changes to Pioneer's board.
Some shareholders, however, have indicated to Fin24.com that major board changes - especially involving the highly regarded CEO Andre Hanekom and financial director Leon Cronje - could leave Pioneer vulnerable.
A market watcher, who asked not be named, said it was difficult not to link the resignation of Swanepoel to the bread price fixing scandal.
"This director is not of retirement age. If he was resigning for reasons unrelated to the debacle around price fixing then wouldn't Pioneer have detailed such reasons in the announcement," the source said.
- Fin24.com
