adminAtlas Mara, the investment company launched by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, intends buying the remaining 4.2% of pan-African banking group ABC Holdings it does not already own.
ABC owns BancABC, whose CE in Zimbabwe, Douglas Munatsi, said on Thursday that Atlas Mara had concluded an agreement with Zimbabwean authorities for the takeover. The deal will see ABC exit both the Zimbabwe and Botswana bourses once it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlas Mara.
“The plan now is that for the balance of about 4.2%, there is going to be an offer that will open very soon so that the 4.2% will also be acquired, achieving a 100% ownership by the Atlas Mara group,” Mr Munatsi told journalists and analysts.
A prospectus will be issued around September 15, according to Mr Munatsi, after which ABC will become a private company and subsequently delisted from the Botswana and Zimbabwe stock exchanges.
The exit of ABC Holdings from the ZSE would place pressure on the local bourse, which contracted 7.7% in the first half of this year amid expectations of delistings by more companies as Zimbabwe’s economy free-falls, economic observers said.
Mr Munatsi said the acquisition of the shareholding had received regulatory approvals from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and other authorities, in what had been a very complicated process.
Zimbabwe has a 51% empowerment law that prohibits foreigners from holding the majority stake in locally operated businesses. “There are still quite a few other things that need to be done within some jurisdictions, but I think by and large we are pretty much now at the end of the transactions,” said Mr Munatsi. — Business Day
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