Durban – Tongaat Hulett’s share price surged by more than 27% on the JSE yesterday after the agriculture and agri-processing company said it expected to return to profitability in the six months to end September, boosted by the performance from all sugar operations and its turnaround strategy.
The company said in a trading update that it expected to report headline earnings per share of between 117 cents a share and 140 cents, improving by between 150 and 160 percent compared to a loss of 233c reported last year.
Its headline earnings was expected to be between R158 million and R189 million, also improving by between 150 and 160 percent compared to last year’s R315 million, while operating profit was expected to increase by approximately 70% compared to last year’s amount of R1.3 billion.
“This result is due to an excellent performance from all the sugar operations and good overall business momentum, which reflects continued progress with the business turnaround strategy,” said the group.
Chief executive Gavin Hudson implemented a turn-around strategy for the group last year after financial mismanagement was uncovered in early 2019.
