TONGAAT Hulett Limited’s new majority shareholder, Vision Group, has pledged to expand the company’s Zimbabwean operations and has ruled out any plans to delist from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), businessdigest can reveal.
Tongaat Hulett, a South Africa-based agricultural and agri-processing group, owns two major sugar-producing subsidiaries in Zimbabwe — Triangle Limited and Hippo Valley Estates Limited, the latter of which is listed on the ZSE.
Vision Group, a South African investment consortium that acquired Tongaat last year, is composed of four entities operating under the name Vision Principals: Terris AgriPro (Mauritius), Remoggo (Mauritius) PCC, Guma Agri and Food Security Limited, and Almoiz NA Holdings Limited.
Vision Group director and shareholder Rute Moyo said in an interview the consortium had no intention of delisting from the local bourse.
“ZSE is one of the stakeholders that we will engage once we actually have the exchange control approvals from the Reserve Bank,” Moyo said.
“We have not yet contacted them, but it is not anticipated at this point in time that we will exit ZSE.
“We have not had any of the discussions internally, neither have we engaged officials on any of that. So, it is something that will have to remain by local management, and they believe there is value in that listing.”
Earlier this year, Tongaat’s Zimbabwean subsidiaries began a staff rationalisation exercise aimed at cutting costs and ensuring long-term sustainability.
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However, Moyo clarified that this process predated Vision Group’s acquisition and stemmed from routine business reviews.
“Our understanding of them is that the operationalisation that has been announced prior to our entry was really as a result of a normal business review,” he said.
“It did not have anything to do with the transaction at all, as we understand it. It was to do with certain parts of the business that needed to be transformed.
“For example, there were areas in the workshops and so forth in some of our supply chains that had actually been out-sourced.
“Yes, it was a rationalisation. But, when you look at the jobs that were created in those that actually got the outsourcing work, we believe that it may not have actually had the net impact that the image was portraying. But that is the take that we have.
“Do we ourselves actually have an intention to rationalise? In fact, our discussion with the regulators…was that there is opportunity for growth,” Moyo added.
Tongaat entered voluntary corporate rescue on October 27, 2022, burdened by debts and claims amounting to R13 billion (US$721,6 million).
After a competitive bidding process, Vision Group was selected in January 2024 to lead the rescue via a R5,9 billion (US$330,05 million) debt-to-asset transaction.
