Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation

Funny how things change. The Swaziland sugar industry was facing ruin a few years back due to European Union suger deregulation. No, thanks to ethanol expansion, the company is back in investors minds.

The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation is one of the largest Swaziland businesses, producing two-thirds of the country’s sugar. RSSC has two mills located in Mhlume and Simunye, and an ethanol plant located in Simunye. Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders improved by 88.9 percent on the previous year.

Listed on the Swaziland Stock Exchange, the stock is very illiquid, its free float is less than 20% and owned by only about 562 shareholders. That make buying even half a million dollars of shares extremely difficult.

The company owns and manages 15 629 hectares of irrigated sugar cane estate on land leased from the Swazi Nation and manages a further 5 009 hectares on behalf of third parties, delivering approximately 2.3 million tonnes of cane per season to the Group’s two sugar mills. These two mills currently crush cane at a combined throughput of 700 tonnes per hour, producing approximately 434 000 tonnes. It also operates a sugar refinery, situated at the Mhlume mill, which produces 120 000 tonnes of refined sugar, and a 32 million litre capacity Ethanol plant, which is situated adjacent to the Simunye mill.