HARARE – The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has challenged the $50 million lawsuit that was filed against the local bourse by diversified conglomerate Meikles Limited (Meikles), businessdaily has learnt. Alban Chirume, the ZSE chief executive, said his organisation lodged an appearance to defend with the High Court on Monday to give the bourse adequate time…
HARARE – National airline Air Zimbabwe (Airzim) is seeking new partners as part of its turnaround strategies. Its acting-chief executive Edmund Makona told Parliament on Monday that the national flag carrier — with a debt overhang of $298 million — wants to engage its major shareholder, government, for funding and fresh capital. “With our debt…
HARARE – Zimbabwe plans to cancel independent power producers (IPPs) licences —with a capacity to generate 5 000 megawatts (MW) — including Essar Africa (Essar)’s. Gloria Magombo, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) chief executive, yesterday told Parliament that the country was increasingly getting frustrated by more than 12 IPPs that were failing to get…
HARARE – Rio Tinto (Rio) and Russia’s DTZ Ozgeo are yet to agree on Zimbabwe’s mandatory merger of diamond firms, with the two seeking clarity on the proposal. This comes as a week ago, Mines minister Walter Chidakwa told Parliament that government will consolidate all seven diamond mining firms operating in Zimbabwe into one, with…
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate decreased by 0,12 percentage-points on the January rate of -1,28 percent to -1,40 percent in February, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstats) said on Friday. This means that prices as measured by the all items CPI decreased by an average of 1,40 percentage-points between February 2014 and February 2015….
HARARE – Banking group ABC Holdings Limited (ABCH) has secured a $50 million multi-currency loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) for on-lending to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). The loan, with a seven-year tenor, will be disbursed through ABCH’s subsidiaries in Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe — which AfDB said has “many enterprises facing liquidity challenges”. “The…
HARARE – Telecel International (TI) executives are in Zimbabwe to discuss the fate of its local unit following government threats to shut down the mobile operator. This also comes as two of Empowerment Corporation (Private) Limited (EC)’s main shareholders — Jane Mutasa and James Mutasa — have reportedly closed ranks amid signs by the Harare…
HARARE – Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe Limited (Lafarge)’s short-term borrowings ballooned by 380 percent to $4,8 million in the year to December 2014 from $1 million in prior comparable period as the company battled to meet working capital requirements. As a result, the listed cement manufacturer incurred an additional $200 000 in finance costs during the…
HARARE – Zimbabwean products are expensive as “companies have failed to leave the Zimbabwe dollar mentality” of charging high prices, central bank governor John Mangudya said. He said the scenario has made local products uncompetitive in offshore markets. “There is need to adapt to the new realities of the United States dollar we are using…
HARARE – Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya says banks must not attach defaulting debtors’ properties, but restructure bad debts instead. This comes on the back of a wave of property auctions and seizures by bailiffs, as banks — burdened by ballooning non-performing loans (NPLs) estimated at around $700 million — are increasingly…
