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Martin Kadzere Senior Business Reporter
COTTCO Holdings managing director Mr Collins Chihuri has stepped down from his position after he volunteered to take a package under the ongoing retrenchment exercise, an official said. “He decided to participate in the current retrenchment; he volunteered to put his name forward,” chairman Dr Douglas Ncube said in an interview yesterday, adding that the exercise would result in a total of 30 employees being laid off.

Dr Ncube said the company would look for Mr Chihuri’s replacement “once everything settle down”.

According to sources, Government is looking at taking over the majority shareholding in Cottco through a debt swap.

The scheme will allow the conversion of high debt of about $56 million plus – using the RBZ’s debt buying company Zamco – to lower interest in Treasury Bills, easing the debt burden saddling the operation. The Government already holds major shareholding in Cottco through the National Social Security Authority.

The company was suspended from trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange after it applied for judicial management in November last year.

However, the company dropped the application for judicial management following a reassessment of the company’s “financial situation” while an agreement was also reached between Cottco and major creditors, mostly financial institutions, to work out a scheme of arrangement which would have resulted in conversion of debt into equity.