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Creditors voted in favour of Vision’s business rescue plans on January 11 this year while RGS Holding wimped out of the bid a day before the voting when its proof of funds, purported to be obtained from ABSA Mozambique, was interrogated.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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A controversial Mozambican company has put another bid for Tongaat Hullet Limited (THL) despite a pending fraud charge for allegedly submitting falsified bank documents to prove it had funds to purchase the business.

RGS Holdings has written to THL’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) on July 8 to acquire a 90% stake in THL for R4.5 billion.

THL was put under business rescue in 2022 following shenanigans by some executives that plunged the multinational company into financial distress. The sugar company has assets in KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Despite RGS’s new proposal, the assets are already in control of Vision Consortium led by mogul Robert Gumede. Creditors voted in favour of Vision’s business rescue plans on January 11 this year while RGS Holding wimped out of the bid a day before the voting when its proof of funds, purported to be obtained from ABSA Mozambique, was interrogated.

At the time, the business rescue process had survived being mired in a similar controversy when Tanzanian sugar company Kagera Sugar Limited’s bid was accepted by BRPs on the strength of a fictitious promise of R2 billion funding by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

A senior IDC executive was forced to resign when this impropriety was uncovered.

The People’s Eye has seen RGS Holding’s correspondence in which RGS Holdings’ chairperson, Aquil Rajahussen, commits to inject R4.5 billion to acquire 90% of THL.

Rajahussen indicates that R451, 5 million would be utilised to settle unsecured creditor claims.

The BRPs turned down RGS Holding’s proposal through correspondence from their lawyers, Werkmans Attorneys, which said: “Your interest in acquiring a controlling interest in THL is noted. You will appreciate that unless and until there is an absolute unsurmountable impediment to the implementation of the adopted BR plans, your interest cannot be advanced by the BRPs nor are the BRPs in a position to engage with you in relation to same.”

The Vision Consortium’s BR plans are irreversible and stand to be implemented soon.

The consortium’s take over has been boosted by approval from the South African Competition Commission. Tribunals in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana are considering the same matter.

The next important step in the transaction is voting by shareholders.  The shareholders – which include the Public Investment Corporation, Rudlands , Artemis , PSG - will vote for a debt to equity transaction that will see the  Vision Consortium acquiring 97.3 % percent of THL. 

Current shareholders have an option to vote in favour of the debt swap and get 2.7% shares in the JSE listed company.

If  the shareholders do not vote in favour of the debt to equity transaction, which will give them three per cent shareholding, Vision Consortium will acquire 100% of the assets in SA,  Mozambique and Zimbabwe.