JSE delists one of South Africa’s biggest companies after 74 years
Tongaat Hulett, one of South Africa’s biggest sugar producers and agricultural businesses, will be removed from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on 3 November 2026.
The JSE announced on 12 October that it had decided to remove the company’s ordinary shares from its Main Board, ending a listing that dates back 74 years.
The JSE noted that the delisting follows years of financial distress, business rescue proceedings, and an extended trading suspension.
Tongaat Hulett’s shares were suspended on 20 July 2022 after the company failed to publish its annual financial results for the year ended 31 March 2022. Its shares have not traded on the exchange since then.
The company entered voluntary business rescue on 27 October 2022, with control of its management passing to business rescue practitioners (BRPs).
All non-executive directors resigned shortly afterwards. The decision to delist follows a business rescue plan adopted by creditors in January 2024.
The initial plan was to recapitalise the company through a debt-for-equity exchange, with an alternative being to sell its assets and businesses as going concerns.
However, shareholders rejected the equity subscription underpinning the proposed debt conversion at a general meeting in August 2024.
This required the BRPs to pursue the alternative transaction, involving the sale of Tongaat Hulett’s assets and businesses to the Vision consortium.
The adopted plan explicitly provides for the company’s eventual delisting and the sale of its businesses.
The company’s current directors and BRPs have confirmed that they will not oppose the JSE’s decision or request additional time to remedy the non-compliance that led to the proposed removal.
They said the delisting was consistent with the adopted business rescue plan and reflected the company’s current circumstances.
Tongaat Hulett has struggled to meet several of its obligations as a listed company since entering business rescue.
The company said these difficulties stemmed from the departure of its non-executive directors, the transfer of management authority to the BRPs, and the absence of reliable financial information that could be independently audited.
Once a national pride
The BRPs have been unable to publish audited financial statements due to uncertainty regarding the company’s financial position and the future of its operating businesses.
The JSE’s announcement also noted that its shares had been suspended for four years and that there was no reliable basis for valuing them.
“While shareholders will continue to own unlisted shares in the unlisted Company after the Removal of Listing, the shares will not be tradable on the electronic STRATE platform,” it said.
Following the delisting, shareholders will retain their shares as unlisted certificated holdings administered by transfer agent Computershare Investor Services.
Share statements will be issued within six business days of the effective date, while subsequent share transfers must be reported to Computershare for the share register to be updated.
Importantly, the delisting does not involve an offer to shareholders, and no payment will be made to them as a result.
The company warned that shareholders should not expect future distributions, as the adopted plan provides for the disposal of its assets and businesses, with no value expected to accrue to shareholders upon conclusion of the business rescue.
In less than a decade, Tongaat-Hulett went from a company of national pride to a collapsed entity. It was once a major force in South Africa’s agricultural and food production sectors.
Tongaat-Hulett was the country’s only white sugar refinery and became its largest producer of refined sugar. It also operated in maize wet-milling and land development.
Before its accounting scandal and eventual liquidation proceedings, the company supported close to half a million livelihoods across Southern Africa.
In South Africa alone, it supported over 25,000 jobs and accounted for roughly 77% of the sugar industry revenue in KwaZulu-Natal, making it completely indispensable to the regional economy.
The BRPs said they would continue working towards a restructuring solution that preserves the operating businesses and seeks the best available outcome for employees, growers, creditors and the wider sugar industry.
Separate business rescue proceedings involving Tongaat Hulett Developments, Tongaat Hulett Sugar South Africa, and Voermol Feeds will also continue under their respective arrangements.
Read the full announcement below.
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