Dave Woollam: Tongaat has sold the crown jewels - because it just had to

Shareholder activist Dave Woollam has been keeping us updated on the survival efforts of embattled Tongaat-Hullett, which last week sold its highly profitable Starch division for R5.35bn. Woollam agrees with new CEO Gavin Hudson that the price received was a good one - especially given the stress that everyone knows Tongaat is under. But he also explains that a business which delivered R300m a year to the group's cash flows will be sorely missed. But needs must right now as a group that was once the pride of KZN is forced into selling the crown jewels to keep its bankers from foreclosing. Little wonder that Tongaat's market value is just R400m - one twentieth of the debt that remains after the latest asset sale. - Alec Hogg