Ingwebu shortlists seven financial advisory firms

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo Municipal Commercial Undertaking (BMCU)-run Ingwebu Breweries has shortlisted seven companies as it seeks to appoint a financial advisor for its turnaround programme.

In 2017, Bulawayo City Council, which owns the entity, announced the privatisation of Ingwebu Breweries as part of a strategy to turn around the loss making commercial undertaking into a financially sound private company.

The brewery is scouting for investors to inject about $20 million working capital it requires to retool. Ingwebu Breweries acting managing director, Mr Johannes Gumbo told Business Chronicle that the shortlisted companies were all local firms.

“We are yet to appoint a financial advisor but in that regard, we have done a preliminary selection where we have shortlisted seven companies from the nine responses that we received.

“We have also done the interviews and it’s only that we are left with the final stage of appointing,” he said.

Following its privatisation, the brewery is now in the process of recapitalising the business, which process involves courting potential investors to raise about $20 million Ingwebu requires for retooling.

Ingwebu’s retooling programme involves replacing some of the equipment with new technology and some of the machinery has a foreign currency component.

It is hoped that as Ingwebu gets revamped, the private entity would diversify its product range within the beverages industry offering an assorted products that include mahewu, among others.

Mr Gumbo said they were looking forward to appointing the qualifying financial advisor early next year.

The privatisation of Ingwebu means BCC would concentrate on its core business as a local authority.

In recent years, the brewery has faced viability problems in light of falling demand for its products and the high cost of running its obsolete equipment and thus negatively affecting its ability to contribute any revenue to BCC.

Ingwebu Breweries was established in 1946 as a department of BCC and in 1996, council established a wholly-owned business entity called BMCU.

— @okazunga