Johannesburg - The recent findings by Empowerdex, which states that South Africa’s most valuable commercial fishery – the deep-sea trawling industry – is 62.36 percent black-owned, did not come as a surprise to fishing company Oceana.
According to Empowerdex the finding is in sharp contrast with widely held opinion that the deep-sea trawling industry, which has annual sales in excess of R5 billion, is largely untransformed.
“Oceana Group has been majority black-owned and black-controlled since 2011 and we are justifiably proud of our position as the most empowered JSE-listed company in South Africa,” chief executive Francois Kuttel said.
Awards
The group mentioned awards they had won to back their achievements. In 2014 Oceana was rated as the most empowered listed company in South Africa (Mail & Guardian’s Most Empowered Companies ranking) and repeated this feat last year (Independent’s Most Empowered Companies ranking).
“Oceana is at the forefront of real and effective transformation with a total BBBEE (broad-based black economic empowerment) score of 98.39 points in 2014. We achieve 95.17 points in 2013. The company’s score improved due to tangible improvements in management control, skills development, preferential procurement and employment equity. It retained maximum points for ownership, enterprise development and socio-economic development,” Kuttel said.
Empowerdex lead researcher, Lister Saungweme, said the study was conducted to understand and verify the extent to which the fishery industry had transformed in recent years. “Our aim was not only to clarify the deep-sea trawling industry’s verified transformation status but to benchmark it against other industries. “A significant finding is that the industry is 62.36 percent black-owned and a level three contributor to BBBEE,” she said.
Kuttel said: “It is revealing about the massive strides the Oceana Group has taken since being ranked 70th in 2004 and 2nd in 2013 on the empowerment score card.”
The group said the seventh Oceana Empowerment Trust Distribution was paid out and a total of R7.5 million was shared out among 2 555 qualifying employee beneficiaries.
“We are truly sharing the value the Oceana Group is creating and view this as what our country needs for socio-economic stability and the long-term sustainability of our business,” Kuttel said.
Sustainability
Empowerdex noted that the industry’s transformation compared favourably with other sectors of the economy. For example, the deep-sea trawling industry placed fourth out of 10 when compared with other industries – scores for which were drawn from the top empowered listed companies in each sector.
Tim Reddell, the chairman of the SA Deep Sea Trawling Industry Association, said: “Before 1990, there were a few rights holders in the fishery – all of them large and predominantly white-owned. Today, there are 44 rights holders and many of them are small to medium enterprises that have invested in vessels, factories and other capital equipment and are operating successfully alongside the large companies that remain in the fishery.”
Oceana shares lost 1.76 percent to close at R110 yesterday.
BUSINESS REPORT