Tate & Lyle has announced the sale of Tate & Lyle Investments (Africa) Ltd (TLIA) to a Botswana-registered holding company CBAQ (Pty) Ltd (CBAQ).
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TLIA is a holding company that owns the group’s 50.1% interest in ZSR Corporation Ltd (ZSR), a sugar refiner and industrial holding company based in Zimbabwe, and its 33.3% interest in Sugarmark (Namibia) Pty Ltd (Sugarmark), a joint venture holding company with interests in sugar marketing in Namibia. The total consideration of £3.25m (US$4.6m) has been received in cash and will be used to reduce group debt.
CBAQ will be led by ZSR management and will include the ZSR Workers’ Trust, with financial support from ABC Holdings Limited.
For the financial year ending March 2001, ZSR had consolidated net assets of £12.8m (group share £6.4m) and profits of £8.4m (group share £4.2m). The group’s investment in Sugarmark had a book value of £0.1m at March 2001 and contributed £0.3m to group profit before tax for the financial year ending on that date. The pronounced depreciation of the Zimbabwean dollar since March 2001 means that this transaction will give rise to a profit on disposal of less than £1m.
CEO Larry Pillard commented: “This sale is another step in the group’s strategy of focusing activities on the major core businesses. Both ZSR and Sugarmark are profitable and well run. However, we feel that ZSR in particular will be better developed as a Zimbabwean enterprise and this transaction will effectively transfer ownership to employees of ZSR. We thank all of the employees for their contribution to Tate & Lyle and wish them every success for the future.”
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