Tongaat Hulett is an agriculture and agri-processing business, focusing on the complementary feedstocks of sugarcane and maize. The company had its origins on the North coast of KwaZulu-Natal, specifically the town of Tongaat (now oThongathi). The company was formed as a result of a merger between the Tongaat Sugar Company founded by Edward Saunders and Hulett's Sugar founded in 1892 by Liege Hulett.[3] Company stock is listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. Its core businesses are sugar, starch and property management.
In the 2014/15 season, 1.314 million tons of sugar were produced.[4]
Operations
- Tambankulu Estates, Mhlume – The company operates two agricultural estates on the Mbuluzi River.
Tongaat Hulett's had three sugar estates in Zimbabwe in Chiredzi District and they bordered one another.
Animal feeds
Voermol Feeds, based in Maidstone, produces molasses-based animal feeds.
Artificial sweeteners
Cape Sweeteners, based in Durban, is a subsidiary of Tongaat Hulett Sugar, producing artificial sweeteners including; aspartame, neotame, acesulfame-K, fructose, sodium saccharin, sodium cyclamate, polydextrose, maltitol and lactitol. It is the exclusive South African agent of Nutrasweet's aspartame and neotame
Starch
Tongaat Hulett Starch, previously African Products is Africa's largest producer of starch and glucose, produced at five South African factories.
Land development
Tongaat Hulett Developments is a land conversion and development company that carries out land conversion activities by collaborating closely with the public sector, communities and other businesses.
Corruption scandal
At the end of 2018, the CEO, Peter Staude took early retirement[5] and the chief financial officer, Murray Munro, went on sick-leave.[6] In January 2019, a new CEO was appointed. In February 2019, the company announced a drop in expected profits[7] as well as a liquidity crisis.[8]
In May 2019, the company announced that its published financial results could not be relied on and that the company's equity (the value of the business after liabilities) in its 2018, financial results has been overstated by between R3.5 billion to R4.5 billion[9] in addition revised financial reports would be published in October 2019.[10] The Zimbabwean operation of Tongaat-Hulett has also not been able to provide reliable financial reports in 2019 on time.[11] The auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers were employed to do a forensic audit.[9] The diligence of the company's regular auditors, Deloitte has been called into question.[12] The company suspended trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.[13] In late June 2019, the company laid a criminal charge against an unnamed executive.[14][10] In an effort to survive the company is cutting costs and has sent retrenchment letters to 5000 employees.[9][15]
In August 2019, the company decided to remove itself from the list of traded companies on the London Stock Exchange.[16]
In February 2022, seven people connected with the scandal namely, Peter Staude, Murray Hector Munro, Michael Edward Deighton, Rory Edward Wilkinson, Kamasagrie Singh, Samantha Shukla and Gavin Dykes Kruger appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court and were granted bail.[17] The appeared in court again in April 2022.[18]
R14,373 Billion (FY 2013)[1]