Botswana retailer Choppies sees its shares plunge after surge in 2025
The stock tumble sharply after a year of extreme gains.
BOTSWANA – Shares of Botswana retailer Choppies Enterprises fell 47% on Thursday, 8 January, closing at US$0.22 (R3.98) after hitting an intraday low of US$0.18 (R3.21), with no immediate explanation for the decline.
The drop comes after Choppies was the top-performing share of 2025, climbing 891% over the year, or 915% when including total returns.
Trading volume surged to over one million shares on the day, roughly ten times the stock’s 52-week daily average.
Choppies’ share price trajectory last year was remarkable, rising from US$0.04 (80c) in January 2025 to nearly US$0.44 (R8) by December.
The stock initially doubled from US$0.04 (80c) to US$0.09 (R1.60) by mid-year before accelerating after the company released its annual results for the year to June 2025.
By November, the share price had doubled twice more, reaching levels that analysts said could not be explained solely by financial performance.
Choppies reported a 15% increase in revenue to US$674 million (9.2 billion pula) for the year to June, while profit declined 23% and headline earnings per share rose 19%.
Average daily trading over the three months to December was around 256,000 shares, but activity over the last ten days of 2025 exceeded 519,000 shares per day.
The stock’s volatility is partly attributed to its limited free float, with the top 10 shareholders controlling 89% of the company, including three directors holding 46%, institutions 21%, and companies 28%, leaving retail investors with under 5%.
At the closing price, Choppies’ price-to-earnings ratio stood at 42, down from a peak of 62 earlier in the week, compared with the JSE average of 15.75.
The share price surge pushed Choppies’ market value to US$783 million (R14.5 billion), placing it close to Pick n Pay, which is valued at US$986 million (R18.3 billion), despite generating more than eight times Choppies’ revenue.
Other developments by Choppies
Choppies is also completing its exit from South Africa, selling its remaining 45 Jwayelani supermarkets and a KwaZulu-Natal meat processing facility to the Shingai Itai Consortium, pending regulatory approval.
The retailer first entered South Africa in 2008 and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2015 but began scaling back operations in 2020 to focus on its core Botswana business.
Previous asset sales included more than 90 stores and distribution facilities transferred to Kind Investments in 2019 for US$0.10 (R1), which assumed Choppies’ South African debt and provided an interest-free loan of US$5.4 million (R100 million).
Many of the former Choppies stores in South Africa have since been taken over by local brands, including OK and Shoprite.
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