Lobels set to unveil new investor

statement, Lobels’ financial advisors CBZ Bank Ltd and legal advisors Dube, Manikai and Hwacha Legal Practitioners said an earlier arrangement of a sale- in-execution had been cancelled.
A sale-in-execution is a public auction held by a Sheriff of the High Court. This means a court order has been obtained to attach and sell property to recover money owed.

“The cancellation of the sale-in-execution will allow the implementation of the proposed transactions to continue. An investor has come forward and is due to sign an agreement to invest and acquire interests in the business of Lobels,” said the advisors.
It is anticipated that the agreement will be signed on or before Friday this week. The company said payments to creditors whose liabilities have been verified in accordance with the settlement agreements would be made following the signing of the agreement with the new investor.

The identity of the new investor remains a mystery, but speculation is rife that Kayseed Trading (which earlier this year undertook to be an interim leaseholder for some of Lobels’ assets, while providing working capital to operationalise the bakery’s productive assets) could take a controlling stake in the firm.

Lobels resident director Retired Brigadier David Chiweza was unreachable on his mobile phone yesterday, while Mr Edwin Manikai from the legal representatives said he was engaged in a marathon of arbitration meetings yesterday. Meanwhile, the company says production is continuing with the bakery producing an average of 55 000 loaves of bread a day.

At the same time, operations at the Bulawayo bakery continue with the production of an average of 45 000 loaves daily. This means Lobels is producing around 100 000 loaves of bread a day since resuming operations in August, which is less than half of its installed 250 000-loaves-a-day capacity.

This is a significant improvement in production from when it resumed operations producing between 15 000 to 20 000 loaves daily. However, the Lobels brand is yet to regain its popularity on the supermarket shelves.

A survey by the Herald Business showed that Lobels bread is largely being distributed to high-density areas as the bakery seeks to regain its share of the market, which had been snapped up by other players since the company’s woes began.