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Business Reporter
THE Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) continues to dispose of assets with car dealership firm Amtec being the latest to be offered for sale barely a week after bids were invited for Deven Engineering.
IDC hold 55 percent in the company.
“The board of Motec Holdings, a subsidiary of Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe has resolved to dispose its 55 percent subsidiary, Amtec Private Limited by way of a share sale,” the company said.
“Proceeds of the sale will be utilised to fund new ventures in line with IDC’s mandate that entails establishing new industries and facilitating, guiding and promoting financing reorganisation and development of existing industries.
“One of Motec’s co-shareholders in Amtec, Inchcape Plc, holding 14,9 percent, has also made a decision to divest out of Amtec alongside Motec.”
Last week, the company also announced plans to dispose its shareholding in Deven Engineering Private Limited.
Deven, a coach building, commercial passenger transport solutions and general engineering company and Yutong franchise dealer is wholly owned by Motec, a subsidiary of IDC.
Motec wholly owns Deven.
Market watchers say the disposal of the companies that deal with vehicles could be as a result of an influx in imported vehicles mainly from Japan that has made the two uncompetitive.
Official figures show that close to 50,000 second-hand cars are imported into Zimbabwe each year at a cost of $1 billion a year.
Each month, more than 4,000 used vehicles are brought into the country through various point of entry largely Beitbridge and Chirundu border posts.
The local motoring industry has been in the doldrums in the last decade with employment in the sector dwindling from as a high as 20,000 to around 2,000.
Corporate Excellence has been appointed as financial advisors to manage the disposal through a competitive tender process.
IDC also plans to dispose of Sunway City residential area, IDC House, Stone Holdings, Zimbabwe Grain Bag, Allied Insurance and Zimbabwe Copper Industries.
Other IDC subsidiaries include Almin Metal Industries, Amtec, Sunway City, Zimbabwe Copper Industries, Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries, Sable Chemicals and Zimphos.
IDC is a self-financing, national Development Finance Institution established in 1963 and is wholly owned by the government.
Online Reporter