Private equity firm Takura has reached an agreement to acquire a 57,4% state in sugar processor StarAfrica Corporation from the Zimbabwe Asset Management Company (ZAMCO), according to a corporate announcement on Thursday.
“On the 29th of March 2021, in compliance with Section 236 of the Companies and Other Business Entities Act, Takura III (Private) Limited and investors in Africa – Takura Ventures expressed its intention to acquire from ZAMCO a control block of shares of StarAfrica Corporation,” StarAfrica said in a notice to shareholders.
“To that end, Takura has entered into an agreement with ZAMCO to acquire the block of shares, which totals 2 760 284 842, transating to 57,4% of the issued share capital of StarAfrica.”
Once the transaction is concluded, Takura is required to table an offer to buy out minority StarAfrica shareholders.
The StarAfrica deal comes hot on the heels of the approval of Takura’s takeover of stricken agro-processor Interfresh Limited, whose main asset is the Mazoe Citrus Estates.
The private fund’s interest in the consumer goods segment keeps growing, following its acquisition of Cairns Foods and breadmaker Lobels, which it has nursed back to health over the past few years. Takura is also invested in Talwent, which holds Food Lovers Market franchises. The fund is a significant shareholder in the Avenues and Montague clinics.
ZAMCO was created by the central bank in 2014 to buy toxic assets from banks in a bid to lower a bad loan ratio that peaked at 20,45% that September.
StarAfrica Corporation was one of the debt-distressed firms whose US$32 million loans, owed to several banks, were taken over by ZAMCO.
The ZAMCO transaction helped StarAfrica, which operates one of Zimbabwe’s two sugar refineries, snap a lengthy loss-making streak and return to a solid financial footing. – NewZwire
