Sinosteel Corporation has acquired 67 percent stake in
Zimbabwe's leading ferrochrome producer and exporter Zimasco
Holdings for an undisclosed amount, becoming the majority
shareholder,?A Zimbabwean newspaper said on Thursday.
The deal is yet another show of foreign investors' confidence in
the country's economy despite the current challenges and
misconceptions about the Zimbabwean government's indigenization
policy, The?Herald reported.
Although no figures were mentioned, the deal is worth
millions?dollars, The Herald said.
"The transaction closed on December 13, and Sinosteel has become
the controlling shareholder of Zimasco Consolidated Enterprises," a
Zimasco Holdings spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Zimasco Consolidated Enterprises is the parent company of
Zimasco Holdings, while Sinosteel has 76 subsidiaries under its
umbrella, 53 of them in China and 23 dotted around the world.
The core business of the Zimbabwe company is developing,
processing, trading and logistics of metallurgical mineral
resources and related engineering technical services and equipment
manufacture.
Under the deal, Sinosteel will retain the current Zimasco staff
and the existing management in both the company's mines and the
smelting plant.
The Zimasco spokesperson added that Sinosteel would market the
output through the appropriate channels, with due regard to
existing contractual obligations, the present customer base and the
need to maximize company profitability.
Zimasco Holdings is the fifth largest high carbonated
ferrochrome producer in the world. It used to produce 210,000 tons
of high-carbon ferrochrome per year, nearly all of it along the
mineral-rich Great Dyke, accounting for 4 percent of global
ferrochrome production.
Zimasco has also the world's second largest reserves of chrome,
after South Africa. It was formerly owned by Union Carbide
Corporation, now part of Dow Chemicals Corp.
(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2007)
