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Tawanda Musarurwa
Diversified media group, Zimpapers (1980) Limited today held its first ever virtual annual general meeting (AGM) after shareholders sanctioned the meeting.

Online meetings are increasingly becoming the norm due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has dictated the need for social distancing.

Shareholders – in a special resolution – also approve amendments to the company’s Articles of Association, which were necessitated by the earlier changes to Zimbabwe’s companies law.

Zimpapers’ shareholders approved that the company’s Articles of Association be amended as follows: that all references to the Companies Act shall now be to the Companies and Other Business Entities Act [Chapter 24:31] or its successive legislation; and that Article 55 – In line with Section 95 (1) of the new Act, the Article was amended to reflect that the group shall have a minimum of seven directors and a maximum of 15 directors of which at least 3 should be independent.

In a trading update to May 2020, group chief executive officer Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said the group’s revenue rose by 358 percent to $116 million on a historical basis.

But profit for that period decline 2 percent to $1,2 million as the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

Over the last three months, the pandemic cost the group $22 million.

“As expected, the Covid-19 pandemic was the biggest disruption to our business since its outbreak in Zimbabwe in March this year. As a result of the national lockdown to contain the pandemic, Zimpapers lost a staggering $22 million over the last three months,” said the CEO.

The group has however since implemented a number of initiatives to mitigate the loss of revenue during the pandemic.