In a race against time to save the sugar industry from disaster, cane growers in KwaZulu-Natal have formed a consortium and submitted a proposal to the business rescue practitioners of JSE-listed sugar producer and property company Tongaat Hulett to acquire certain of its South African assets. If the acquisition is approved, these assets will be held in an unlisted limited liability company .
“How many of these parties choose to participate in the consortium and what their shareholding will be will depend in part on the deal reached with the business rescue practitioners at Tongaat Hulett. “This is why we would like to see negotiations get underway as soon as possible, so that these critical details can finalised timeously,” he said. Cleasby said the consortium’s vision is to create a collective investment in the assets of NewCo by all Tongaat-supplying growers.