The Vision Consortium said yesterday it was grateful its rescue plan for Tongaat Hulett had been approved and a team was in place with a plan to turn around, grow and diversify southern Africa’s biggest sugar group.
Tongaat Hulett is a key strategic asset in the SADC region, employing some 40 000 workers and working with more than 250 000 small scale cane growers, as well as numerous players across the sugar cane industry.
The Vision Consortium is made up of entrepreneurial families led by both South African and Zimbabwean Robert Gumede and Rute Moyo, and international businessmen Amre Youness and Nauman Khan.
Vision said it had conducted a deep dive due-diligence in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique, where Tongaat was the leading sugar company and one of the largest employers.
“Having been involved in this transaction since late 2020, we always believed that in the right hands, Tongaat Hulett can return to be a great business,” Vision said in a statement yesterday.
The consortium thanked Tongaat’s management and staff, and business rescue practitioners, and the role played by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in providing Tongaat with the “oxygen it requires at this crucial time.”
Vision’s “robust” five year business plan would not only stabilise Tongaat but would grow and diversify the SADC region's sugar industry leader.
The business rescue practitioners and management could benefit hugely from Almoiz, who were brought into Vision as a technical partner. Almoiz has extensive operational, sugar, ethanol and biomass energy experience, while another Vision partner Terris had the distressed asset and financial engineering experience required to stabilise and propel the growth of Tongaat.
Vision would engage and settle with SA Sugar Association, as well as engage with the IDC on post commencement finance on win-win terms to be agreed by all parties.
BUSINESS REPORT