eBusiness Weekly
HARARE – The Zimbabwe government has not yet received its 60 percent shareholding in Telecel International which it acquired from Dutch company Vimpelcom, as it has not made full payment, a Cabinet Minister has said.
In 2016, the government announced that it had reached an agreement with Vimpelcom to acquire its entire shareholding in Telecel International for $40 million. The deal, which had dragged on since 2014 when Vimpelcom announced its intentions to exit Zimbabwe, resulted in the government taking control of the country’s smallest mobile operator in which Telecel International had a 60 percent shareholding.
The remaining 40 percent is owned by Empowerment Corporation, a group of local investors. Information, Communication Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira said the shares would only be transferred once full payment was made to Vimpelcom.
“Out of the $40 million we were only able to pay a fraction of it because of the shortage of forex. The balance we agreed with the sellers that we put in an escrow account with Barclays Bank in Zimbabwe where the money is,” he said.
“About $18 million is still pending and being held in an escrow account by Barclays Bank Zimbabwe. They (Vimpelcom) will only release the shares to us until that money is repatriated to them.”
Mandiwanzira defended the government decision to acquire Telecel.
“We could see that this thing (Telecel) was headed for collapse. It is our business as a Ministry to promote the growth of the industry and to protect jobs in the industry, so this intervention was very positive,” he said.
He said in the interim, Telecel required at least $30 million in new capital. – New Ziana
