ELLEN MLAMBO
MIRROR REPORTER

CHIREDZI-Distressed Tongaat Hulett Limited (THL) operations in South Africa have pushed creditor voting on Business Rescue Plan (BRP) to September 2023. The creditor voting was supposed to take place on June 15 this year.
A press statement dated June 13, 2023, signed by THL Zimbabwe Hippo Valley Estates and Triangle Private Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Aiden Mhere, revealed the adjournment.
Mhere, however, said operations in Zimbabwe (Hippo Valley Estates Ltd and Triangle Ltd) are not directly impacted by the process as they are not under the rescue plan. 
The BRP will affect Tongaat Hulett Limited and Tongaat Hulett Development Proprietary Limited in South Africa. 
A business rescue plan entails the rehabilitation of a company to return it to financial health. The procedure is drafted and published by Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs). Creditors then vote on the adaptation of the rescue plan. If creditors with a 75 per cent value in the company vote for it, they adapt and put it into motion. 
The extension follows a request by the BRPs to publish a rescue plan that contains details relating to the outcomes of specific transactions.
“As they have communicated before the BRPs wanted to publish a rescue plan that contained details relating to the outcomes of specific transactions. Since the release of the business rescue plan, the BRPs and the management team in South Africa have continued with discussions with a range of parties,” reads part of the statement.
Tongaat decided to undergo a business rescue plan as a result of its failure to service its residual debt, the majority of which (around 87 per cent) is carried by the cash flows of the SA sugar operation, the property business and operational support fees received from the non-SA sugar operations. 
The sugar giant seeks to raise ZAR1.5 billion to fund the peak working capital requirements to complete the 2023 financial year, according to Financial Times.
He added that after voting on the plan with clarity on the outcome of the Strategic Equity Partners process (SEP), the Operational and Corporate restructuring begin. 
There are continued engagements between Tongaat and eight potential Strategic Equity Partners (SEPs) interested in the acquisition of, or investment in, the whole of THL and or the SA sugar operations.
The underlying implications of the creditor voting extension are that operational aspects of the business continue, creditors will only vote on the plan during September 2023, engagement with the eight potential Strategic Equity Partners (SEPs) interested in the acquisition of, or investment in, the whole of THL and or the SA sugar businesses and or parts thereof will continue and the same work stream as set out in the originally published Business Rescue Plan, take place. 
The BRPs reached an agreement with relevant stakeholders on June 9, this year that updating the business rescue plan with additional details in terms of the strategic equity partner process (with firm offers expected during June/July) and other matters would be in the best interest of creditors before they are requested to vote. 
“This will ensure that the company will all have additional information on the Business Rescue Plan. This does not impact its operations and the plan to rescue the business continues,” reads part of the statement.
 “Only the timing of events changes, with the sourcing of a strategic equity partner pre-dating the release of the revised Business Rescue Plan and the operational and corporate restructuring, will commence after the plan is signed off and there is clarity on the outcome of the SEP process,” reads the statement.