By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Tongaat Hulett announced that current CEO, Gavin Hudson, has tendered his resignation with effect from 28 February 2023.
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.
The group also said, the release of a business rescue plan has been pushed by a month until the end of February, when Hudson will also leave the firm after just over four years in the job.
Tongaat had entered business rescue in October, and lenders had previously agreed to about a two-month extension to its rescue plan.
Tongaat’s shares had crashed in the wake of the scandal, and the firm had been battling with a crippling debt pile in its SA operations, which was threatening the group’s survival. The firm successfully disposed of its starch business, but plans to sell off property in KwaZulu-Natal were derailed, in part as a result of civil unrest in 2021 that hit property values. Covid-19, as well as floods in KwaZulu-Natal, came as additional blows to the more than 130-year-old sugar group.
Since then, the firm had secured post-commencement financing from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), saying on Monday that this “key step” in the process would allow for focusing on achieving successful business rescue of Tongaat and its underlying businesses.