JSE-listed agriculture and property group Tongaat Hulett on Thursday said it expected its headline earnings for the year ended March 31 to increase by 18.7% to R1.06-billion.
Profit from operations was expected to increase by 11.7% to R2.15-billion, from R1.92-billion a year earlier, with profit from the starch operations increasing to R388-million, profit from the land conversion and development operations rising to R350-million and various sugar operations generating operating profit of R1.44-billion.
The company’s total sugar production increased by 9%, with the major production increase this year seen in Zimbabwe, following a 42% increase in sugar production in Mozambique in the previous season.
In South Africa, the national transport strike, followed by unusually heavy rains in the last three months of the crushing season, left sugar production at levels similar to last year’s.