CFI shareholder battles continue

Shareholder battles at CFI Holdings continued as two board of director nominees were rejected for a seat at the table.

This was confirmed at the recently held annual general meeting which was held at the company’s boardroom in the capital.

CFI Holdings has for years been a turf war between Messina Investments owned by the Van Hoogstraten’s family trust and Stalap Investments Private Limited (Stalap), an investment vehicle owned by Zimre Holdings (Zimre) where Hamish Rudland is a major shareholder.

The battle for the throne began after Stalap acquired an additional 12,93 percent of CFI’s shares overtaking former major shareholder, Van Hoogstraten’s London-headquartered family trust.

Takeover by the Rudlands followed disposal of 13,6 million CFI shares by NSSA as part of efforts to streamline operations at the State-owned organisation.

In 2017, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange had to intervene when Messina Investments dangled a 46 cents per share offer to CFI’s minorities to counter Stalap’s initial 22 cents per share offer, in a move that was aimed at luring shareholders to surrender their shares to the businessman’s investment vehicle.

ZSE concluded that Messina had not communicated to them that they had achieved the 35 percent shareholding which allowed them to make a mandatory offer to minority shareholders.

Shareholders at CFI Holdings rejected the appointments of Chakanyuka Nziradzemhuka and Stanley Kudenga to the board of directors.

They were mostly representing Stalap Investments. With 16 years of expertise in investment banking and a range of backgrounds in stockbroking, wealth management, medical benefit funds, and pension fund management, Chakanyuka Nziradzemhuka is a qualified professional.

He is a member of the Institute of Financial Markets in South Africa, holds an Executive MBA, and has an MSc in Finance and Investments.

Nziradzemhuka is also Zimre Holdings’ chief operating officer.

Stanley Kudenga holds an MBL from the University of South Africa in addition to being a licensed chartered accountant (CAZ). He has over 27 years of experience working in investment banking and capital markets, and he now serves as ZIMRE Holdings Limited’s group chief executive officer.

Only Waraidzo Munakopah was appointed to serve on the CFI Holdings Limited Board of Directors.

She is a human resources practitioner who holds, among other qualifications, a Master of Science in Development Studies Degree from the Women University in Africa.

Group Secretary and Legal Officer at CFI Holdings, Panganayi Hare, confirmed the development, saying “only two motions were not carried” relating to the appointment of directors.

Meanwhile, CFI’s historical revenue for the five months that concluded on February 28, 2023, totaled $30,2 billion, a 283 percent increase over revenue of $7,8 billion the previous year.

Gross profit rose 346 percent to $8,1 billion from $1,8 billion in the comparative period.

Net finance costs of $4,6 billion were incurred compared to $126 million in the prior year, mainly as a result of major movements in the exchange rates between the two periods.

“Included in the finance costs are unrealised exchange losses from USD-denominated loans, which amounted to $3,8 billion,” acting group chief executive officer Shingi Chibanguza told shareholders attending the CFI’s annual general meeting.

“Lastly, the group recorded a loss before IMT tax of $1,4 billion compared to a profit of $343 million for the same period last year. The losses mainly emanate from the unrealised exchange losses.”

In the outlook, Chibanguza said the group’s management is concentrating on expanding the companies and revitalizing all operations to regain lost market share and provide shareholders with reasonable returns.-ebusinessweekly