[2019-08-28] Xinavane and Mafambisse sugar mills in Mozambique have interested investors

Source: Macauhub

The Mozambican government has secured alternative investors to South African group Tongaat Hulett to keep the Xinavane sugar unit in Maputo province and the Mafimbisse unit in Sofala operating, the minister of industry and trade said on Tuesday.

Ragendra de Sousa also told Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias that investors interested in the two units visited the Xinavane unit on Sunday and on Monday went to Mafambisse to assess the state of the two sugarcane factories and fields.

“We have the situation under control,” said de Sousa, who was speaking in Ricatla, Marracuene district, where the 55th edition of the Maputo International Fair is taking place until Sunday, 1 September.

The minister, who declined to disclose the name of the investor interested in the two factories, added that the board of the South African group now has to say what it intends to do.

The Tongaat Hulet Group controls 85% of the share capital of the Mafambisse unit and 88% of Xinavane, the latter being the largest sugar producer in Mozambique with an installed capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year and production exceeding 200,000 tonnes in 2018.

In June it was announced that the South African group had verbally communicated to workers at the Mafambisse sugar factory and the Mozambican government that it would abandon activity in the region.

This abandonment would be a result of financial problems in which the group is involved in its home country, where it has a bank debt of around 11 billion rand (US$767 million).