Can Tongaat Hulett be saved?
After revelations in 2019 that it had added R12bn worth of ‘artificial sweetener’ to its accounts, Africa’s largest sugar company has hit the skids. More than 500,000 people depend on its survival — but can it prevail in a world where sugar producers are under siege?
To understand the predicament of Tongaat Hulett, Africa’s largest sugar company, you need to wind the clock back to August 2018. The occasion is Tongaat’s 126th AGM, convened in the venerable colonial-style mansion at Amanzimnyama Hill, north of Umhlanga, once home to the Saunders sugar barons, who founded the business.
The atmosphere is electric. Three months before that AGM, Investec Securities analyst Anthony Geard had published a report, titled “Time for Change”, in which he argued that, after a decade of “declining returns” and zero growth, it was time for Tongaat CEO Peter Staude to “step aside”. ..
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