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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has appointed Deloitte and Touche Chartered Accountants as the transaction advisor to provide the parastatal with advice on capital raising initiatives.
At present, the ailing State entity, which is saddled with operational constraints due to obsolete equipment, lack of access to funding and a $144 million debt, requires about $1,9 billion in the long-term to be fully recapitalised and transformed.
NRZ board chairman Mr Larry Mavima said yesterday that the parastatal was looking at various capital generation initiatives including courting regional financiers.
“We’ve appointed Deloitte and Touche as transaction advisor to NRZ. Among other responsibilities the transaction advisor shall be involved in is evaluating responses in terms of recapitalisation of NRZ as well as advising board and management on various capital raising initiatives and models aimed at improving its operations,” he said.
About 20 potential transaction advisors locally and internationally had applied to NRZ to provide their service to the railways company.
Mr Mavima is on record saying appointment of a transaction advisor is critical to NRZ as raising huge capital is a complex issue in terms of who the parastatal selects as a financier, terms and conditions of the funding and the models that the railways firm would use for its operations.
The NRZ is presently negotiating with the Development Bank of Southern Africa for a $650 million package to rehabilitate the railways infrastructure.
The rehabilitation of NRZ infrastructure would improve the parastatal’s efficiency and boost revenue generation.
Mr Mavima said NRZ operational capacity would during this quarter improve significantly compared to the previous quarter due to maize imports that are coming into the country.
“During this quarter, our freight volumes will slightly improve from previous quarter’s levels due to the maize imports coming into the country through Mozambique and some coming from Zambia.
“As we speak, we’ve been informed that 47,500 tonnes and 60,000 tonnes of grain have docked in Maputo and that will improve our business during this quarter. We have also sealed a deal with the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) where we have agreed to move 90 percent of their coal to Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare power stations,” he said.
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