READ MORE: Who is eating from IDC’s R2.5 billion Tongaat Hulett lifeline?
This decision marks the final chapter in the company’s four-year suspension saga and will leave shareholders in limbo.
Though this comes as there have been efforts to save the group’s businesses and protect jobs, there is little prospect of value being recovered by equity investors.
The shares have been suspended since July 2022 after Tongaat failed to publish annual financial results for the year ended March 31 2022. The company entered into business rescue in October 2022.
The JSE said Tongaat remained in breach of several continuing obligations, including the publication of outstanding financial statements and annual reports, and had no realistic prospect of restoring compliance. The company itself acknowledged its ongoing non-compliance and did not oppose the removal of the listing.
Delisting reflects rescue plan
In a statement to shareholders, Tongaat said the delisting is not an unexpected development but forms part of the business rescue plan adopted by creditors in January 2024.
After shareholders rejected a debt-for-equity transaction in 2024, the rescue plan shifted towards the disposal of the group’s operating assets and businesses, leaving the listed entity on a path to becoming a shell company.
The company told the JSE that all potential outcomes, whether a restructuring, asset sale or liquidation, would ultimately result in Tongaat no longer owning its operating businesses and having no realistic ability to meet the obligations required of listed companies.
Shareholders left behind
The central issue behind the delisting is not merely regulatory non-compliance but the lack of any meaningful value expected to flow to shareholders.
The JSE noted that Tongaat itself had advised that none of the likely rescue outcomes were expected to result in value accruing to shareholders. The exchange said maintaining the listing could create false hope that residual value might emerge or that trading could eventually resume.
READ MORE: Tongaat Hullet’s secretary resigns amid ongoing business rescue
Tongaat has similarly warned investors that no payment will be made to shareholders as part of the delisting and that they should not expect future distributions once the business rescue process is completed.
Although shareholders will continue to own shares after 3 November, those holdings will become unlisted securities and will no longer trade through the JSE’s market infrastructure.
IDC’s bid to save the sugar industry
The delisting comes against the backdrop of a recent agreement involving the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Vision Group, which has been presented as a lifeline for Tongaat’s operating businesses and the broader sugar industry.
Under that agreement, the IDC committed additional funding to keep operations running, while part of the funding will later be converted into equity in the Vision-controlled operating companies.
Vision is acquiring Tongaat’s South African business as well as interests in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, with the transaction expected to help preserve about 250,000 jobs across the sugar value chain.
However, the agreement is aimed at preserving the underlying business, jobs and productive assets rather than rescuing the listed company itself. The JSE and Tongaat have both made it clear that the rescue process does not alter the expectation that shareholders are unlikely to receive any value.
Focus shifts to creditors and operations
Tongaat said the business rescue process will continue after the delisting, with practitioners remaining focused on implementing a restructuring solution that protects jobs, supports growers and secures the best available outcome for creditors and the broader regional sugar industry.
- The JSE has decided to remove Tongaat Hulett from its Main Board, bringing an end to the sugar producer’s more than four-year suspension, after finding the company had no realistic prospect of restoring compliance with listing requirements.
- The delisting, effective from November 3, 2026, follows years of financial distress, ongoing business rescue proceedings and the company’s inability to publish outstanding financial information.
- READ MORE: Who is eating from IDC’s R2.5 billion Tongaat Hulett lifeline?
- This decision marks the final chapter in the company’s four-year suspension saga and will leave shareholders in limbo.
- Though this comes as there have been efforts to save the group’s businesses and protect jobs, there is little prospect of value being recovered by equity investors.
