Omega Ukama 
THE Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation (Zamco) is planning to dispose of its 57,4 percent stake in Starafrica Corporation (Starafrica) before the end of the year, it has been learnt.
Zamco took over Starafrica’s debt totalling $32 million in 2016. The debt was later converted to equity making it the sugar processor’s largest shareholder.
“We have achieved all that we sort to achieve by holding a stake in that company, and in accordance with our mandate, we cannot exist in perpetuity so we had to let go at some point,” Cosmas Kanhai, Zamco’s chief executive told The Financial Gazette last week.
“We are hoping to complete the transaction this year, but it will depend on how quickly we get bids and the quality of bids we will get,” he said.
Zamco has since issued a statement inviting offers.
“The closing date for submission of proposals shall be not later than 10 00 hrs, November 30, 2020,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
In the meantime, Starafrica has issued a cautionary statement saying the engagements “may result in a transaction that could have a material impact on the value of the company’s shares.”
“The board therefore advises shareholders to exercise caution when dealing in their Starafrica shares,” the company said last week.
Established in 2014 to deal with a crisis of non-performing loans in the country at the time, Zamco is meant to conclude its operations in 2024.
On many occasions, including in a recent interview with this publication, Kanhai has reiterated that the vehicle is on course to meet this target.
Between 2014 and 2018, Zamco took-over non-performing loans worth $1,4 billion. The entity has given itself a target of resolving loans worth $140 million annually.
Meanwhile, efforts to turnaround the fortunes of Starafrica, which a few years ago was on the brink of liquidation, seem to be paying-off, after the company last year broke a ten-year lossmaking streak with a net profit of $8,8 million for the year to March 2019.
Over the past four years, the company’s production and profitability has been improving following recent equipment upgrades and the considerable progress made in restructuring its once debt-ridden balance sheet.
Starafrica recorded a profit of $54,5 million for the year ended March 2020, after achieving a 114 percent increase in turnover to $1,2 billion.
The company says it expects to double the volumes it achieved in the prior fiscal year by focusing on growing exports in the wake of unrelenting cost pressures fuelled by hyperinflation.
Starafrica’s business is the production and distribution of sugar products, as well as the manufacturing of grocery and snack products.
The group comprises a sugar production business — Goldstar Sugars Harare, a sugar speciality products business
