This indicates that Rainbow, South Africa’s second-largest poultry producer, is recovering from the setbacks of 2023, when the poultry industry was hit by electricity outages, high feed costs and the worst outbreak of bird flu in the country’s history.
RCL is due to report its half-year earnings to end June 2024, the last period when its financials will include Rainbow’s contribution. Rainbow was unbundled from RCL and listed separately on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on 1 July this year.
In an updated trading statement, RCL indicated that it expected headline earnings per share to more than double compared to the 68.3 cents per share reported for the same period last year. An earlier update had put the likely increase at 75%.
The improvement was driven largely by Rainbow and RCL’s groceries division, the company said.
The extent to which Rainbow has recovered from the poultry industry’s disastrous 2023 will be disclosed when RCL produces its half-year financial statements on 2 September.
