Durban – Tongaat Hulett fell more than 5% on the JSE yesterday after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) fined the sugar-maker nearly R120-million for the misrepresentation of its financials, but reduced the penalty to R20-million after the group co-operated with the investigations.
The FSCA said yesterday that it imposed an initial headline fine of R118.34m, but reduced it because of what it called the company’s difficult financial position.
The FSCA said it remitted the large portion of the fine, because of the difficult financial position of the group, the need to avoid penalising innocent shareholders further, and to maintain Tongaat’s commitment to continue to co-operate with the FSCA in all future actions taken against any persons allegedly responsible for the wrongdoing.
This followed an investigation by the FSCA into alleged contraventions of the Financial Markets Act by Tongaat after the group had to make a number of significant restatements of its March 31, 2017, and March 3, 2018, financial results.
“The FSCA has found that Tongaat made false, misleading or deceptive statements, promises or forecasts in its public statements to the markets in the prior period,” said the FSCA.
