* Year diluted headline EPS 132.5 cents, vs 112.1 cents
* Shares up 0.6 percent
(Recasts with MD comment)
By Olivia Kumwenda
JOHANNESBURG, May 28 (Reuters) – South African group Illovo
Sugar has pulled out of a 2.6 billion rand ($310
million) sugar project in Mali, largely due to political risk
and also funding difficulties, and will focus on growth
opportunities elsewhere in Africa.
“On the African landscape, west Africa has … increased in
risk profile and therefore other regions, such as east Africa
and central Africa, would come to the fore once again,” managing
director Graham Clark told Reuters on Monday.
“We are focusing across the region. Those would be areas
where you have the best fundamentals to grow cane and attractive
markets,” he said.
Mali’s Markala Sugar project, a proposed private-public
partnership between the government and Illovo, was expected to
produce 1.5 million tonnes of cane per year.
Illovo ended its interest in the project after the
government failed to finalise funding and complete undertakings
with regard to infrastructure development, Clark said, adding
security risk was also a concern after a coup.
Illovo, a unit of Associated British Foods and
Africa’s biggest sugar producer, has operations in South Africa,
Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia.
Continued…
