Tongaat Hulett successfully opposes RGS Group Holdings' High Court application
BUSINESS RESCUE
Hippo Valley and Triangle Sugar are Tongaat Hulett units that supply Zimbabwe and the EU with sugar. Tongaat Hulett has successfully opposed an urgent application by Mozambique-based RGS Group Holdings to stop Tongaat's business rescue process.
Image: Supplied
Tongaat Hulett’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) have successfully opposed further High Court proceedings instituted by RGS Group Holdings (RGS) on Tuesday this week in the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court.
The Durban High Court struck RGS's latest urgent interdict application off the Court roll for lack of urgency, ordering RGS to pay Tongaat Hulett and the BRPs' costs on the highest scale, a statement from Tongaat said Thursday. RGS is an investment management company that has been involved in a legal dispute with the distressed Tongaat, and the Vision Group, which acquired Tongaat's assets through the business rescue process.
RGS, a 25-year-old family-owned diversified conglomerate and one of Mozambique’s biggest companies, had been a potential bidder for Tongaat but withdrew from the process, citing issues with the Vision Plan and the business rescue practitioners, and following allegations of fraudulent proof of funding.
The court had dismissed RGS’s application in February 2025 to stop the business rescue process. In July 2025, RGS filed another application, which resulted in a court order for the Vision Group to provide certain documents related to the acquisition.
So the latest application was the third urgent High Court application instituted by RGS as part of its campaign to frustrate the business rescue process of Tongaat Hulett. RGS had raised grievances about the conduct of the BRPs and had questioned the legality and fairness of the rescue plan.
The BRPs said significant progress had been achieved in progressing the implementation of the business rescue plan, which was approved and adopted in January 2024 by an overwhelming majority of creditors who had voted at a creditors' meeting on January 10 and 11, 2024.
“The BRPs remain of the opinion that the adopted plan is capable of successful implementation, which will result in, among other things, Tongaat Hulett’s long-term sustainability, the safeguarding of thousands of jobs, and ensuring the stability of the sugar industry, the broader economy of the KwaZulu-Natal province, and the country as a whole,” they said.
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