Two merchant banks will handle sale, writes Martin Rushmere
without-aircraft, Affretair, is to be one of the first three government corporations to be privatised. The long- overdue decision has been greeted with elation by shippers and forwarders.
The National Privatisation Agency, set up two weeks ago, says that two merchant banks are being asked to handle the sale, which should take place within six months to a year.
The airline's outstanding debts of Z$2 billion(R150 million) are double what was originally thought and are bound to make the task of the banks much harder than expected.
One of the questions that still has to be settled is the percentage shareholding to be kept by the government. It will probably be about 20% but could be as low as 10%.
Whoever buys Affretair is not getting much. The main assets are hydraulic loading equipment plus a hangar/warehouse Ñ and about 400 staff.
The biggest sticking point will be staff, said a freight industry specialist. Their numbers could easily be whittled down to about 30 or 40 Ñ but the government will never allow that without huge retrenchment packages which make the whole exercise worthless.
You can expect negotiations to carry on for more than a year to decide on that point alone. Anyone bidding for the company must go in with their eyes wide open on this point.
A huge bonus of privatisation will be the removal of the dead hand of Affretair's power of veto on foreign airlines coming to Zimbabwe. This led to freight rates being 15% to 20% higher than they should have been.
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