Tongaat Hulett to sell portion of Botswana business

Show Voice Options Distressed JSE-listed sugar producer Tongaat Hulett is set to sell 33.3% of the issued share capital and the claims for repayment of the shareholder loans in Tongaat Hulett (Botswana) to Ball Foundry, a nominee company of the Vision parties. The shares will be beneficially owned by the Vision principals on the closing date of the transaction. The purchase consideration will be settled by way of a set-off against a portion of the lender group claims. The Botswana transaction, together with the Zimbabwe transaction, announced last year, will result in Vision Investments, through Vision nominees, collectively acquiring a direct and indirect 50.1% of Tongaat Hulett Botswana, which is the holding company of the group’s operations in Botswana. The sale agreements relating to the shares and claims held in Tongaat’s Mozambique entities will be signed as soon as the parties are ready to do so. Tongaat in December also announced that it would sell all its assets and operating businesses in South Africa to Vision Sugar South Africa. The various transactions form part of an adopted business rescue plan that was formally approved and adopted on January 11, 2024. The business rescue practitioners (BRPs) are legally bound and obligated to proceed with the implementation of the alternative transactions as outlined in the adopted plan, and the Botswana transaction is the next step in the implementation of the plan. The BRPs remain of the view that there is a reasonable prospect of a successful business rescue.