Tongaat Hulett: tale and timeline of SA titan’s downfall. MUST READ!
By Nadya Swart
Still reeling and bruised from the Steinhoff debacle, South Africa has also been grappling with another corporate scandal: Tongaat Hulett appears to have pulled a Steinhoff on its shareholders. When the scandal broke in mid 2019, the business's share price plunged to a level where the market cap was suddenly worth a tenth of the R25bn pre-scandal value.
Over the years prior to the scandal, Tongaat had been capitalising more and thus inflating the balance sheet – that created a cycle which got out of control through numbers that were a little over-optimistic each year. This misrepresentation occurred under the leadership of former CEO, Peter Staude, who – because of his charisma and appearance of being a really solid, stand-up guy – no one questioned.
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