COMPANIES: Tongaat to be delisted as 2026 becomes an annus horribilis for JSE

South African sugar producer Tongaat Hulett will cease to be a listed company from 3 November, the latest delisting making 2026 an annus horribilis for the JSE.

The removal of its listing will cap a long and sordid saga of financial skulduggery and misgovernment that saw its books at one point cooked more thoroughly than a potjiekos over too many brandies and Cokes.

In 2019, a forensic probe by PwC uncovered the manipulation of financial records to gin up profits and asset values on paper – an explosive report that recalled the shenanigans at Steinhoff.

In hindsight, this marked the beginning of the end of Tongaat’s presence on the JSE, which included the coveted blue-chip status of a Top-40 company.

Trading in Tongaat’s shares was suspended on 20 July 2022 and on 27 October of that year the company was placed in voluntary business rescue.

Long story short, it’s been all downhill from there.

“Having considered all relevant facts and circumstances ... the JSE determined that it is appropriate and in the public interest for the issuer’s listing to be removed,” the JSE said in a statement on Monday.

It cited the prolonged suspension, “the absence of any realistic prospect of restoring compliance” and the company’s “own acknowledgement that no value is expected to accrue to shareholders”.

In a separate statement, Tongaat said that its directors and business rescue practitioners were not opposed to the removal of its listing – a move that for them may well be bittersweet. And so after 74 years, Tongaat will officially part ways with the JSE on 3 November.

Worrying trend

Tongaat’s departure adds to a worrying trend of JSE delistings outpacing new listings that was highlighted over the weekend by the consultancy AmaranthCX.

“South Africa’s public equity markets are likely heading for their worst year for new company listings since at least 1995, with just two new listings so far in 2026. Both listings have been on the JSE, and both are inward secondary listings of foreign companies,” AmaranthCX said in a research note.

In the year to date, with Tongaat added to the list, there will be 13 delistings from the JSE in 2026 compared to only two listings.

Since 2017, according to AmaranthCX’s database, there have been 195 delistings from the JSE and only 71 new listings.

Not all of these delistings reflect distress and governance issues, as is the case with Tongaat. There is good news amid the bad news of the JSE’s listing woes.

For example, Omnia Holdings, a diversified company with a portfolio spread across agriculture, chemicals and mining, is profitable, innovative and well-run. And yet it is delisting in the wake of India-based Solar Industries’ acquisition of it for R21.8-billion.

That is no bad thing on one level: a South African company attracting the interest of a foreign investor in a very material manner. But it is another blow to the JSE’s overall offering to investors on a highly competitive global stage.

Tongaat, like Steinhoff, is an outlier: most JSE-listed companies meet stringent financial and reporting requirements. But their numbers are on the decline, and that is a worrying trend. DM