South African logistics group Transnet has won a bid to recapitalise the government-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) with USD 400 million. The financially struggling NRZ will begin next week contract negotiations with Transnet, which made the bid jointly with Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group, a consortium of Zimbabwean investors living abroad.
Transnet is expected to help turnaround the fortunes of NRZ by providing funding to acquire and refurbish wagons, upgrade the company’s information communication technology and signalling systems and increase NRZ’s capacity to move goods.
The government has created a special purpose vehicle to warehouse NRZ’s USD 348 million debt, which the railway company will repay over time once it is financially sound.
“Basically the winning bidder is coming in as a joint venture partner and will work with NRZ to turnaround the situation,” Larry Mavhima, the NRZ board chairman, said.
Share on:
