Sugar producer Tongaat Hulett said on Monday it will not challenge the JSE’s decision to remove its shares from the exchange. The shares will be delisted on 3 November, Moneyweb reported.
This ends more than 70 years on the local stock exchange. Tongaat has been listed on the JSE since 1952.
Tongaat said the move had long been part of a plan to restructure its money and business affairs.
The JSE had grown frustrated because the company has not published audited financial statements since 2022. A few days ago, the JSE told Tongaat it planned to remove the listing. It gave its reasons and asked the company to show why it should stay listed.
In a notice to investors on Monday, Tongaat said it could not produce financial statements. It said a restructuring plan that aims to sell off the company’s assets was still under way.
The company said it could not confirm it was still a going concern, because that depended on the rescue plan. It said publishing unaudited figures could have misled the market more than admitting it had no reliable numbers.
The business rescue practitioners told investors the rescue plan will leave Tongaat as an empty shell. They said shareholders should expect no value, so the delisting makes sense.
Tongaat directly employed more than 2 500 people. It supported more than 25 000 indirect jobs in South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal earned about 77% of the national sugar industry’s revenue, and Tongaat held an estimated 30% to 35% of the national market.
The company’s troubles began in 2019, when irregular accounting practices came to light. A PwC forensic investigation found that its profits had been falsified and overstated. This happened under management led by former CEO Peter Staude.
The JSE suspended Tongaat’s shares on 20 July 2022 after the company failed to publish its annual results. Tongaat entered voluntary business rescue on 27 October 2022.
All of its non-executive directors resigned on 2 November 2022. The business rescue practitioners then took control of the company.
The rescue process tried to sell the business to new owners who would bring in fresh money. Several offers came in, but none went through.
Tongaat came close to liquidation in June 2026. It was saved at the last minute by the Vision Group consortium, led by billionaire Robert Gumede, and the Industrial Development Corporation.
Vision, a big Tongaat creditor, and the IDC swapped debt for shares and put money into the company. Under the plan, the practitioners must sell all of Tongaat’s assets and businesses to the Vision consortium.
After the delisting, Tongaat will keep being restructured as a private company, the practitioners said. Its shares will become unlisted certificated shares held by Computershare, the company’s transfer agent.
Shareholders will still own their shares. They will receive a share statement within six business days of the 3 November delisting date, the practitioners said.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Moneyweb. Image: Moneyweb. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.