…as judicial manager insists Balasore should show colour of money
Tinashe Makichi
Eight local and foreign investors have submitted takeover bids for Gweru-based ferrochrome producer, Zimbabwe Alloys following indications that the company’s judicial manager has opted to terminate a court sanctioned scheme entered with Indian investor, Balasore, it has been learnt.
The firm’s judicial managers Grant Thornton is considering terminating a $100 million investment deal which the chrome smelting company entered with Indian Investor, Balasore AlloysGroup after the Asian company failed to honour its commitment.
This is in spite a High Court ruling in favour of Balasore, which stopped the termination of the transaction, although ZimAlloys appealed the ruling.
A well-placed source familiar with the developments told the Business Times that there has been massive interest in the company after Balasore failed to provide the funds required to set the acquisition in motion.
“There has been massive interest from investors willing to take up the majority stake in ZimAlloys but the challenge has been that the company can’t deal with any investor at the moment since it still has a pending case at the courts with Balasore. The judicial manager is now looking at filing an application at the High Court to get authority to cancel the court sanctioned scheme,” said the source.
This publication is informed that ZimAlloys has started looking at initiatives to secure funding for the refurbishment of its furnaces at the Gweru plant. This initiative will see the miner engaging its customers to raise funding. The refurbishment exercise is set to be complete in nine months.
The ferrochrome miner is also working on its dump which is inclusive of the one commissioned in 2013 in a partnership with a Chinese firm, JinAn in a deal worth about $2,3 million.
ZimAlloys together with Zimasco jointly control about 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s chrome ore claims, mostly found along the Great Dyke.
