Posted on 09/03/2007 7:31:23 PM PDT by blam
Zimbabwe buys Heinz cooking oil company
By Byron Dziva in Harare
Last Updated: 2:04am BST 04/09/2007
The Zimbabwean government has bought the 51 per cent stake owned by HJ Heinz in the country's biggest cooking oil manufacturer, it announced.
The move is the first acquisition by the Harare authorities since a law targeting foreign companies and requiring all firms to be majority-owned by Zimbabweans.
The government-controlled Cotton Company of Zimbabwe paid £3.4 million for Heinz's stake in Olivine Industries, which has 1,200 employees. The government already owns the remaining 49 per cent.
Cooking oil is among those goods to have disappeared from shops after the imposition of price controls by President Robert Mugabe, who has threatened to nationalise firms that do not comply.
As well as suffering from inflation of more than 7,600 per cent and a continuing economic collapse, Zimbabwe has a shortage of foreign currency and would find it difficult to pay for firms acquired under the new rules.
In a statement Heinz said the sale was voluntary, describing it as "another step in the company's global strategy to drive profitable growth and innovation".
Heinz was one of the first foreign investors to enter Zimbabwe after independence but relations soured last year over claims that United States sanctions prevented it buying from formerly white-owned farms that had been seized by the authorities.
Gee, Heinz doing business with Mugabe didn’t exactly make the news during Kerry’s 2004 bid...
Not that it necessarily relates to this, but China has been very interested in Africa recently for many reasons:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1884538/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889721/posts
Heinz is putting a spin on the fact that drawing room liberal idealism has just bitten them in the arse.
"we've been looking to unload this sick puppy for years but no takers"
I am sure the sale of their Zim operations will be a huge boon for them. I doubt there was much left.
A little translation is in order here.
Heinz was one of the first foreign investors to take advantage of low acquisition prices induced by American sanctions against the Rhodesian government to enter Zimbabwe after independence but relations soured last year over claims that United States sanctions prevented it buying from formerly white-owned farms at a deep discount resulting from socialist policies it abetted that had been seized by the authorities.
Heinz has been hoping to be first to pick the bones of a once thriving ag producer killed by American leftists, typical of corporate socialists, who are more than happy to consolidate their holdings on the cheap after aiding and abetting a meltdown.
Zimbabwe, say goodbye to cooking oil.
It’s not satire, it’s just a damned misleading headline. He’s not buying Heinz, he’s buying FROM Heinz a state in a different country’s (ENGLAND) cooling oil company.
On re-reading, the story is even worse: Zimbabwe is buying ZIMBABWE’s cooking oil company from Heinz.
I'm not an industry expert but I don't believe you pump cooking oil from the ground. That means that even with the most enlightened socialist management you have to have something out of which to make it. Grown by...grown by...???
Heinz is being practical and realistic. I would have done the same. According to the story it's in pounds, not Zim dollars. Where the money came from is anyone's guess - but even if it's promises, that's better than nothing at all, which is what Heinz would get if they refused and Mugabe nationalized the plant.
Now we get to see if Mgabe is any better at making cooking oil than he is at farming. Any bets?
The sad thing is, there are people on this site who want all companies to be majority owned "by Amurcans!"
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