Zimpapers Logo

Martin Kadzere Senior Business Reporter
AFRASIA Holdings says it is talking to some global investors to raise “significant” capital for its local unit AfrAsia Zimbabwe and sees the bank returning to “height of its success.” “I can’t get into specifics because we are talking to many different parties around the world,” chief executive Mr James Benoit said in an interview last week. “There are many discussions on the go but I can’t get into details of each individual name.”

Mr Benoit said AfrAsia was looking at parties interested in providing liquidity and those interested in equity.
“We have an ongoing capital raising programme in place and a liquidity programme in place. We are attempting to raise significant amounts of money. I am finalising (figures) with my advisors. We are talking to a number of people to provide liquidity and some of them may wish to invest into the bank.”

In 2012, AfrAsia Holdings, a Mauritius financial services group, acquired 35 percent in AfrAsia Bank, then known as Kingdom Financial Holdings, after investing $9,5 million.
Last year, AfrAsia Holdings raised its equity to 54 percent after acquiring an additional 30 percent stake previously held by Mr Nigel Chanakira, founder of KFHL. AfrAsia completed buyout of Mr Chanakira’s Crustmoon from the group last week.

“We completed our buyout of Crustmoon last week . . . the former shareholder partner, Mr Chanakira,” said Mr Benoit.
“We are now finalising our strategies to restore the bank to its former height of success. This was a very big bank.”

The liquidity crisis at the financial institution has continued deteriorating and the bank is said to have substantial outstanding payments on the Real Time Gross Settlement platform.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr John Mangudya said AfrAsia was facing liquidity challenges, but was pursuing various options to ameliorate the liquidity situation.
He said AfrAsia was seeking liquidity support from the major shareholder and pursuing a private placement transaction to boost capital levels.

Dr Mangudya said the central bank was satisfied with the current efforts by the major shareholder to strengthen the bank’s financial condition, as evidenced by an injection of $10 million, which improved the bank’s capital to $19 million as at 30 June 2014.