Tongaat’s earnings growth in line with expectations
Tongaat Hulett on Monday reported a 44.6% rise in headline earnings to R982m, which was in line with its recent guidance. The rebound in the performance of its main sugar operations did the heavy lifting, making up for a slack in the starch operations, and the land management and development arm. Tongaat, which operates in a cyclical agricultural industry, realised R1.27bn in operating profit from sugar operations in the year to end-March, which was a turnaround from a loss of R15m in the year-earlier period. The R15.7bn company, which has operations in neighbouring countries, including Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland, attributed the improvement in the sugar operations to higher sugar prices, export prices and effective import duties in the geographies in which operates. Sugar production crept up to 1.056-million tonnes, from 1.023-million tonnes, as the drought in KwaZulu-Natal and poor growing conditions in Zimbabwe and Mozambique affected volumes. Operating profit in the starc...
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