Agriculture and agri-processing companies Tongaat Hulett, Tongaat Hulett Developments, Tongaat Hulett Sugar South Africa and Voermol Feeds, announced in January this year that the required majority of creditors had voted in favour of an extension of the date for publication of the business rescue plan from January 31, 2023 to February 28, 2023.

The extension was requested to allow further time to progress the complex work streams.

During the last few months, the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) have been engaged in securing post-commencement finance for the company, meeting with affected persons and other stakeholders and investigating the affairs of the company, which are very complex, says Tongaat Hulett.

The BRPs confirmed in December last year that national development financial institution the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) had advanced post commencement finance to fund the working capital requirements and off-crop maintenance.

“This key step in the business rescue process allows the BRPs to focus on the next phase of the business rescue proceedings aimed at achieving successful business rescues for Tongaat Hulett and its underlying businesses.”

The group also announced that current Tongaat Hulett CEO Gavin Hudson has tendered his resignation with effect from February 28, 2023. His core team of executives will continue to work with the BRPs, says Tongaat Hulett.

Hudson spearheaded efforts to recover the group four years ago following the discovery of accounting irregularities in 2019.

This involved reducing the group’s debt burden by R6.5-billion and turning around governance and operational processes.

“Unfortunately, these turnaround efforts were hampered by Covid-19, civil unrest and floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the group commenced business rescue proceedings in October last year.”

Appointment of New CEO

On February 7 of this year, Tongaat Hulett announced that the group’s current chief business transformation officer Dan Marokane, had been appointed as the group’s acting CEO.

Marokane joined Tongaat Hulett in 2018.

He has been a key member of the management team which led the turnaround journey of the company, says Tongaat Hulett.

“He played an important role in internal cashflow optimisation programmes and the management of the company’s asset disposals. He was appointed as an executive director of Tongaat Hulett in November 2019 and was previously the chairman of the company’s listed Zimbabwean subsidiary, Hippo Valley Estates Limited.”

Marokane has a BSc Chemical Engineering, MSc Petroleum Engineering and an MBA and has held various senior executive roles over the past 20 years in the oil and gas, power and agri-processing industries.

The company and the BRPs welcome Marokane to his new role.