Zimasco pays out $20m to its creditors

By Tinashe Makichi

Zimasco has paid out about $20 million to its creditors who comprise private companies, state authorities and financial institutions as the ferrochrome producer has begun to implement its turnaround plan.

Zimasco was placed under provisional judicial management in June 2016 after its indebtedness to banks and creditors had increased to about $65 million in 2015 from $38 million in 2009.

Judicial manager Grant Thornton Camelsa advisory manager Bulisa Mbano confirmed the payment highlighting that a further dividend is on its way.

“We paid out $20 million towards settling our debts with the creditors and we call this paying a dividend. We paid 12 percent of what we owe banks and 10 percent to other creditors.

“This is part of our turnaround plan for the company. It has also been driven by the favourable ferrochrome prices experienced during 2016,” said Mr Mbano.

He said the ferrochrome company is also expecting to pay another dividend by the end of this year.

The company is also expecting to double its production and exports by the end of this quarter.

Zimasco is targeting production and exports to increase to a total of 12 500 metric tonnes per annum from smelting and metal recovery as well as 20 000 tonnes per annum from chrome ore concentrates.

The company said that it is producing and exporting on average 10,000 metric tonnes per annum of high grade chrome ore concentrates.

The company’s smelting infrastructure is running at 80 percent of capacity producing high carbon ferrochrome compared to 37 percent production capacity recorded in 2015. The Herald