Mutapa Investment Fund open to selling some assets, partnering with private sector
The Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth fund, is actively looking for investors and open to offers for some of the companies it owns, according to Chief Investment Officer Simba Chinyemba.
Chinyemba spoke at the Zimbabwe Capital Markets and Investment Promotion Conference held in London yesterday. He explained that MIF was created to manage companies previously owned by the Zimbabwean government, aiming to make “sound commercial decisions” regarding their future.
Formed under the Sovereign Wealth Fund Act and later renamed, MIF currently holds over 65 companies across various sectors. Chinyemba emphasized MIF’s goal of improving efficiency and performance within these holdings.
While not seeking to replace the private sector, MIF is interested in partnerships. They offer debt financing guarantees to private entities interested in investing in MIF-owned companies. Chinyemba even stated their openness to receiving offers for some of their holdings.
“Many companies we inherited are underperforming,” Chinyemba acknowledged. “Our main focus over the next few years is to revitalise these assets for the benefit of the country.”
In a separate interview, Chinyemba stressed the need to attract investment for these assets of “national importance” under MIF’s control.
“That’s why we are talking to investors that are serious about investing in Zimbabwe, understand our dynamics and are in it for the long term as MIF is.
” And if there are people that are interested we are very happy to talk to them.”
MIF’s portfolio includes companies in various sectors, such as ZESA Holdings and Petrotrade (energy), ZUPCO, NRZ, and Air Zimbabwe (transport), Kuvimba and Hwange (mining), POSB and AFC (banking), TelOne and NetOne (telecoms), and Arda and Cottco (agriculture).
Chinyemba said the nature of that investment may involve “outright joint ventures, buying some of those assets if we think this is in the national interests”.
“I can’t say which assets are those because it depends on our strategy. But certainly as we go through their turnaround strategy for a lot of these SOEs we are willing to have discussions with various investors about the way forward.
“MIF is open for business, we are happy to listen to investors, come to Zimbabwe. The opportunities are immense, the perceived risk is much higher than the real risk in Zimbabwe,” said Chinyemba.-ebusinessweekly
