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Panagiotis Halamandaris holds 5,728,955 shares in Famous Brands Limited, and at the company's current share price of R49.09 on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, that stake is worth roughly R281.1 million, or about $16.65 million at the current exchange rate of R16.88 to the dollar. It is a number that tells only part of the story. The real weight of that holding sits in where it came from.
The Halamandaris family's connection to Famous Brands does not begin with a boardroom appointment or a block trade. It begins in Greece, where Panagiotis, the eldest of four brothers, was born. His uncle, George Halamandres, had emigrated to South Africa earlier and, after spending time in the United States observing the American fast food concept, came back with an idea: South Africa needed a proper burger chain.
George opened the first Steers in Johannesburg in the 1960s. Business grew, the franchise model was introduced, and by the early 1970s the operation had taken on enough shape that George brought Panagiotis over from Greece to help run it. Panagiotis arrived in South Africa in 1971 and bought his first Steers outlet in Bellevue. He ran it himself. In 1975, he returned to Greece, and his younger brother Theofanis took over the Bellevue store. That would not be the last time the family reshuffled.
In 1980, Panagiotis came back to South Africa, this time for good. He and a third brother, Periklis, who had been living in Australia, both made the trip for Theofanis' wedding that year and left having decided to stay and grow the business. The two brothers opened a second store in Yeoville in 1981. Then in 1983, Panagiotis returned permanently and the trio opened a third location in Sandton City, a move that would prove pivotal. The Sandton store attracted serious attention from would-be franchisees and set off a recruitment drive that within two years had added 15 new outlets.
It was around this time that the two family branches formally joined forces. George's youngest son, John Halamandres, who had been running the sauce factory, merged his operation with the three brothers' restaurant network. A fourth brother, Babis, emigrated to South Africa in 1986. The five-man core unit, as they called themselves, spent the next eight years focused entirely on building the business.
That discipline paid off. In November 1994, Steers Holdings Limited listed on the JSE at an IPO price of R1 per share. Panagiotis became chairman of the listed entity. He held that post until 2007, when he transitioned to non-executive chairman, a role he stepped back from further in 2013 to serve as a non-executive director. In 2017, he retired from the board altogether alongside brothers Theofanis and Periklis, marking the formal end of the founding generation's governance role at the company.
By that point, the company they had listed at R1 a share had grown into something unrecognizable from its original form. Steers Holdings had acquired Debonairs Pizza in 1997, launched Fishaways in 1998, and bought Wimpy South Africa in 2003. In 2004 the company was renamed Famous Brands to reflect the breadth of what it had become. Mugg & Bean followed in 2009, Milky Lane in 2011. By the time the founding brothers stepped off the board in 2017, Famous Brands operated thousands of restaurants across Africa, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
The Halamandaris family has retained significant shareholding throughout. Panagiotis, known within the business as Peter, holds his 5,728,955 shares through what regulatory filings identify as the Panis Trust, which at various points has been listed among the company's major shareholders. At R49.09 per share, as of Friday's close, the stake is valued at R281.1 million. In dollar terms, at R16.88 to the dollar, that is approximately $16.65 million.
Famous Brands has had a difficult decade on the market. Its share price has more than halved from its peak, weighed down in part by the 2016 acquisition of UK chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen for roughly R2.1 billion, a deal that went badly wrong when GBK collapsed into administration in 2020. The stock began 2026 at R53.48 and has gained just under 7% since then, though it remains well below the highs it reached before the GBK era. The board approved a share buyback program in January 2026, citing its own view that the shares continue to undervalue the company and its prospects.
Panagiotis Halamandaris is no longer on the board. His shares, though, remain. They represent the financial residue of a family that arrived from Greece with very little, built South Africa's largest restaurant franchise from a single hamburger store in Johannesburg, and still has skin in the game more than 50 years later.
