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Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered are offering a syndicated $70 million bailout plan to Delta Corporation, the Zimbabwean subsidiary of the world’s second largest brewer, SABMiller. The funds will be used to repay the brewer’s foreign debt. Delta Corporation borrowed an offshore loan of $70 million during the Zimbabwe cash crisis in 2009 to sustain operations, but has been unable to generate the needed revenue to repay the loan.
Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered are now offering $40 million and $30 million respectively to Delta Corporation.
“We borrowed offshore backed by the comfort from our shareholder. It’s a replacement of a loan, we have been investing for capex and working capital, so it is not for new money. We are just paying off one loan and getting another,” said Delta Corporation group finance director, Matts Valela. “We are paying off in November, it was an offshore debt. We are rolling it again and we still have the debt for three years, localised still at the same cost at about 7,3 percent.”
The London-headquartered SABMiller is the majority shareholder in Delta with 40 percent. SABMiller’s brands include famous international beers and it also own over 150 market-leading brands. SABMiller is the world’s second-largest brewer measured by revenues (after the Belgian-Brazilian Anheuser-Busch In Bev) and is also a major bottler of Coca-Cola . — VenturesAfrica.
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