A British firm has snapped up a 15% stake in Zimbabwe’s second biggest bank, officials said here Monday September 18th.
They said Renaissance Direct Investments had bought the stake in Commercial Bank Zimbabwe Holdings (CBZ), making it the third largest shareholder after the government and Libya.
CBZ Holdings chief executive, Nyasha Makuvise, said the shares were part of the 24.1% stake South Africa’s ABSA Bank held in the Zimbabwean bank.
The South African bank pulled out of CBZ earlier this year after it became part of Barclays Bank Plc, which has a subsidiary in Zimbabwe.
No details of the value of the transaction were given.
“I can confirm that we have sold a parcel of shares that we bought back from local shareholders and part of shares received from ABSA,” said Makuvise.
“We sold them to a Mauritius-based company called Africa Investments, which is a subsidiary of Renaissance Direct Investment and they are equivalent to 15% equity of CBZ Holdings,” he added.
The bank is Zimbabwe’s second biggest after Standard Chartered Bank of the Uni ted Kingdom.
The government is the biggest shareholder with 16%, followed by Libya with 14.7%.
