The UK firm that was picked by the government to invest in the Cold Storage Commission has rejected claims that it was “a mere briefcase ...
The UK firm that was picked by the government to invest in the Cold Storage Commission has rejected claims that it was “a mere briefcase company with a £10 000 share capital and a cell phone for its main contact number.”
Boustead Beef Zimbabwe managing director Mr Nick Havercroft told the Chronicle:
“Boustead Beef UK (United Kingdom) is not the holding company or the investing company.
It (Boustead Beef UK) was set up to start the process of raising finance and this has been five years in progress doing market research and understanding the business.
“Boustead Beef UK was set up to import beef into the United Kingdom and to raise finance.
The holding company is not Boustead Beef UK and the holding company has extremely strong partners, which have been to Zimbabwe . . . and have met the Minister of Agriculture (Perrance Shiri) and are known to other ministers. They are very strong (financial) investors and good partners.
“Raising money for Zimbabwe is extremely difficult, I’m sure you will understand this due to sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and like I said raising capital was a five-year process, it wasn’t done quickly”.
Mr Havercroft would not be drawn into revealing the name of their investors citing professional reasons but this paper has it on good authority that Boustead Beef Zimbabwe was being financed by various equity investors from the United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Australia.
“I can’t disclose the investors because I have to protect my investors otherwise people will start phoning them and sending emails requesting for money.
“And that’s what happens, I’ve been in business a long time and my investors are my partners.
“They are my friends and I can’t expose them to what I was exposed to last week in the Press here (locally); all the mudslinging and rumours against what we are doing without people actually bothering to phone or doing a research about the company,” he said.
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