Agri-producer Tongaat Hulett CEO Gavin Hudson, who presented the company's results to investors on Friday, is confident the company is past its days of gloom.
But whether investors agree will be clearer tomorrow when the company's shares resume trading on the JSE. Tongaat requested its listing be suspended in June after allegations of accounting fraud.
The company is almost a year into its restructuring plan after the previous management's questionable accounting practices.
Tackling debt has been Hudson's focus since he took up the reins in January last year.
With its borrowings touching R13bn, the sugar producer has ambitions to reduce its debt by R8.1bn in SA.
A task the company has given itself 13 months to achieve through cost savings and disposing of some non-core assets, as well as equity capital raising.
It also said it would consider the disposal of core assets or majority stakes in core assets.
"It's a massive challenge," Hudson said.
"With an effective rights issue . and the sale of some of our non-core assets, we believe we can achieve that objective. Is it easy to do? Certainly not," he said.
Lulama Qongqo, a consumer analyst at Mergence Investment Managers, sees a difficult task ahead for Tongaat's plans to raise cash to cut debt.
"They might potentially not be able to," Qongqo said.
"This R8bn target depends on them being able to raise R4bn from investors once they are back trading on the JSE.
"I hope that they have the support of their existing shareholders."
She said that management would have to come up with a compelling argument and strategy to persuade shareholders to support the company in raising capital that would not be directed at growth projects at Tongaat but at reducing debt incurred by previous management.
None of the 10 executives implicated in the PwC report on the company remains employed by Tongaat, and it expects a response from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) this month, Hudson said.
"We handed the PwC report over to the NPA and they've allocated various advocates to review the report. Our expectation is that they'll bring it back to us in early February.
"So we have been in discussions with the various other parties that are interested in viewing the report.
"We're working closely with them to ensure they have access to the report and any other information that they deem necessary," said Hudson.
Qongqo said the company still needed to take legal action against the executives responsible for the maladministration to restore trust.
"I by no means think that they are not doing enough, they just have a mountain of problems," Qongqo said.
She said Tongaat operated in an industry that had weak fundamentals.
This week the company reported, for the six months to end September 2019, a loss per share of 235c from a previous loss of 356c in the six months to September 2018. Revenue dropped 1.5% to just over R8bn.
Before the company's shares were suspended, the share price had fallen 75% in the preceding six months.
Qongqo said: "I just don't think that from the market's perspective they've gained people's trust anymore, and it's not completely their fault."
Chris Logan, at Opportune Investments, said the current management was taking great strides in overhauling the business given the corporate inheritance.
"I think they are running very hard. They're working on all areas - governance, operational efficiencies - but it's pretty daunting. I think they're doing a great job against the terrific background of inheriting an extraordinary situation.
"They're doing all the right things without doubt, but there's just this huge hole on the balance sheet with massive debt which, when you see it in black and white, is quite daunting. It's quite frightening," he said.
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