Business

HARARE – State-owned transport and logistics company, Courier Connect, has launched the Civil Service Travel Bureau (CSTB) in a development that will save the country’s cash-strapped government spending millions of dollars in travelling costs. Courier Connect managing director Isaac Muchokomori last week told the businessdaily that the new business unit is offering air travel ticketing…

HARARE – Mines minister Walter Chidakwa yesterday ordered all diamond companies to vacate their various concessions and cease operations after seven months of unfruitful firm consolidation talks between government and the miners. Chidakwa said while government had issued special grants to the nine diamond companies in 2008, the companies — who had been resisting the…

HARARE – Anglo American Plc (Anglo) is keen to keep its Zimbabwean platinum unit, Unki Mine, despite a continued drop in international metal prices. This comes as the multinational company — with a majority stake in the Shurugwi-based platinum miner — is hoping to raise $3-4 billion of asset sales this year as it plans…

HARARE – Ethiopian Aviation Academy (EAA) says it has trained over 2 000 aviation professionals from over 40 countries in Africa and Middle East countries since its inception in 1957. From graduating just a few students back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Academy has grown over the decades to become center of excellence for…

HARARE – Zimbabwean financial institutions are making frantic efforts to secure new nostro accounts holders following the exit of German bank, Commerzbank, from the local market. Nostro accounts are accounts held in a foreign country by a domestic or local bank which are used to facilitate settlement of foreign exchange and trade transactions. NMB Bank…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s largest cigarette manufacturer British American Tobacco (BAT) grew its net profit by 15 percent to $15,5 million in the full year to December 2015 from $13,4 million registered in the previous corresponding period in 2014. The company’s finance director, Lucas Francisco, yesterday told analysts that total sales volumes for 2015 declined by…

HARARE – Businessman Nigel Chanakira’s Kingdom Bank Africa Limited (KBAL) assets are set to go under the hammer in Botswana, in a move described by analysts as a final nail to the entrepreneur’s crumbling empire. KBAL, which had no resident depositors based in Botswana, was in May last year placed under liquidation due to insolvency…

HARARE – United Kingdom-based GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK), a leading global research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare company, has stopped operations in Zimbabwe due to the country’s high political risk profile. Zimbabwe is regarded by foreign investors as a high political and credit risk country due to the fragile political environment and the country’s failure to service its…

HARARE – Information Communication Technology (ICT) minister Supa Mandiwanzira has been mired in NetOne’s boardroom squabbles amid revelations that he had “irregularly hired” a South African consultancy Megawatt Energy (Private) Limited (Megawatt) to audit the mobile company’s procurement systems. The development also comes as the Nyanga North legislator has been caught up in other controversies…

HARARE – Zimbabwe Platinum Holdings (Zimplats) parent company Impala Platinum Holdings (Implats) says it expects its basics earnings per share (EPS) to decline by 30 percent in the half year to December 2015 due to the decline in international metal prices. The south African platinum producer — with an 87 percent shareholding in Zimplats — …