Shares of sugar giant Tongaat Hulett booked their biggest one-day drop in six months on Wednesday, crashing by almost a fifth as investors digested a weak operational performance and news that it may ask shareholders for an additional R1bn in cash to shore up its balance sheet.

Tongaat said in a trading update shortly before markets closed on Tuesday that production had fallen by 9% to 463,000 tonnes in its year to end-March, while the floods in its home province of KwaZulu-Natal forced it to close sugar mills for the past 10 days...

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