BUSINESS REPORTER
A company linked to FBC Holdings executive directors snapped up a 43.22% shareholding in General Beltings Holdings (GBHL) on Tuesday in a transaction worth ZWL$60,067,690.
The acquisition of the 231,942,127 General Beltings Holding shares by Jemaimah Synergies (Private) Limited came after SMM Holdings said it was divesting from the industrial concern and concentrate on its core business of asbestos mining and marketing.
A crown jewel in Mutumwa Mawere’s sprawling business empire, SMM Holdings has been under reconstruction since 2004.
FBC Holdings divisional director/company secretary Tichaona Mabeza and divisional director (Human Resources) Israel Murefu hold 4% and 2% respectively in Jemaimah.
The two are also directors in the board of GBHL.
Jemaimah Synergies (Private) Limited has budgetary provisions to avail up to the equivalent of US$300,000 to finance the initial phase of the turnaround plan of GBHL, according to a notice to GBHL shareholders released last week.
The new shareholder will engage the other shareholders of the company in a resuscitation plan of the business of GBHL, through a variety of means to be agreed upon post this acquisition.
GBHL said Jemaimah would, after the acquisition of the SMM stake, engage other shareholders in the recapitalisation of the company and turnaround its financial prospects.
This, GBHL said, would be achieved through consolidation of the current product range, to enhance competitiveness, thereby increasing market share and an expansion of the product range with deliberate bias towards the mining sector, which is demonstrating phenomenal growth prospects in the medium-term horizon.
GBHL said the new investor would introduce equipment and consumables products offering, targeted at capacitation of small-scale chrome and gold mining operations, introduction of relevant environmentally friendly chemical solutions for mineral recovery, particularly for the SME gold mining sector.
Jemaimah is also expected to introduce new product lines in the FMCG space, under technical agreements, in support of the country’s import substitution initiatives, strengthen the GBL group’s working capital position, in order to support its capacity to sustain profitability, introducing structured finance solutions to provide better technically efficient solutions to the production processes and distribution network.
GBHL said the board agreed to the transaction as SMM Holdings is experiencing challenges with funding its core business activities and “GBHL has been orphaned and not been able to receive much shareholder support for its operations over an extended period of time”.
