Investor could pull out over AAG meddling

via Investor could pull out over AAG meddling – NewZimbabwe 05/11/2015

A TANZANIAN company is considering pulling out of the $40 million Blue Ribbon deal if it is not allowed to appoint its own Chief Executive Officer.

This comes after the AAG wrote a letter to home affairs minister Ignatius Chombo urging him to dismiss the application of appeal by Bakhresa Limited after a Tanzanian national was denied a work permit to head the firm’s Blue Ribbon Industries (BRI) operations in Zimbabwe.

Last month, BRI creditors approved the takeover of the company by the Tanzanian company to revive the food processor and $18.3 was immediately injected with the rest of the money coming in the next 5 years.

BRI had closed in 2012 due to funding limitations and placed under judicial management.

Zimbabwe’s empowerment pressure group, Affirmative Action Group (AAG), said the Blue Ribbon Industry-Bakhresa Tanzania judicial manager should extend the same offer to a second best bidder.

AAG president Chamu Chiwanza said: “It is important to note that the value that Bakhresa intends to pay is not reflective of the company’s improved current value but it is the valuation of the company when it was closed and defunct.”

He added: “The Judicial Manager must either extend the same offer to second best bidder or alternatively re-float the tender and invite new bids.”

Chiwanza added that AAG will not move on its position and will continue to lobby the government to ensure that Blue Ribbon, or any other company, regardless of who owns it, is run and managed by locals.

He said while they welcomed foreign direct investment they would not be moved by any threats.

“Bakhresa Tanzania must subordinate its own commercial interests to our national interest as their current attitude is not sustainable.”

The Tanzanian conglomerate has operations in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa.