Investec report: Risks to profitability of the South African poultry industry have increased in recent months. We see little downside to the maize price from current levels and the industry may experience temporary oversupply in coming months, leading to softer prices. We have cut our earnings estimates by roughly 8% and our recommendation to Sell. - We have cut our FY2008E diluted EPS estimate by 8% to 1 490cps, mostly because we now expect the poultry margin to contract again in the current year as a result of an expected underrecovery of higher input costs. - We base our target price of 14 000cps (previously 16 800cps) on a rolling forward P/E of 9x. This implies a discount to our targeted exit multiple for the Alsi (12x) of 25%. The share currently trades on an historic P/E of 8.6x, implying a 22% discount to the market's current historic P/E of 11.0x. According to INET data, the stock has traded at an average discount to the Alsi of roughly 40% during the past five years. Key points We judge that the risks to the South African poultry industry have increased in recent months, for the following reasons: Consumer demand has begun to slow, according to industry and retail sources, as a result of materially higher chicken prices (brought about by higher maize prices) and higher interest rates. Poultry supply has increased as a result of a number of capacity expansion initiatives, notably the Earlybird expansion project (400,000 birds/week). International maize prices have risen sharply. Additionally the rand has weakened and we now foresee limited downside for the SAFEX maize price, despite excellent local growing conditions. The South African maize price is now closer to the export parity price (EPP) than the import parity price (IPP) for the first time since February 2007. The International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) may s***** antidumping duties on chicken pieces following a recent Supreme Court of Appeal ruling. These duties presently apply to US exports. This could result in an increase in chicken imports. We have cut our FY2008E diluted EPS estimate from 1 618cps to 1 490cps. Our new estimate implies growth of 8%. The key driver of our earnings downgrade is our lower operating margin assumption in respect of Astral's poultry division. We now target 10% (11% previously). We are concerned that average input costs will rise again in FY2008E and that Astral will not be able to recover fully these higher costs as a result of softer consumer demand. We highlight the poultry division's operating margin trend and our projections in the chart below.