Maravi

ZNCB workers have 3 months to know fate

ZNCB workers have 3 months to know fate
By Kingsley Kaswende
Wednesday April 04, 2007 [04:00]

ZAMBIA National Commercial Bank (ZNCB) employees will have to wait for three months to know their fate now that the government has finally sold 49 per cent of the bank’s shares to Rabobank. ZNCB employees will not know their future until after three months when the new management is expected to launch its business plan. Meanwhile, some minority shareholders, led by their chairperson Andrew Kashita, walked out of an emergency general meeting (EGM), which had met to amend the bank's articles of association, retire the reigning board, and appoint a new board.

At a press briefing announcing the closure of the seven-year long privatisation process of the country's largest consumer bank, commerce permanent secretary Davidson Chilipamushi, who is also the outgoing bank chairperson, said a resolution was passed to dissolve the board and usher in a new one. The new board comprises three officials from Rabobank, including new ZNCB managing director Mark Wiessing, Rabobank managing director Arnold Kuijpers.

Two others namely, Chintu Mulendema and Getrude Akapelwa have been seconded by the government while a sixth one is yet to be appointed. Chilipamushi said the government was happy that the deal had finally been sealed although concerns had been raised regarding compliance to the Banking and Financial Services Act (BFSA), which limits the number of shares any organisation can own in a bank to 25 per cent. Rabobank has been granted a waiver to get round this hitch.
"To assure the concerned parties, the whole process has been followed to the letter," he said. "It is not unusual...Waivers aren't irregular."

Chilipamushi regretted that some minority shareholders, who have often accused the government of sidelining them in the whole process, walked out of the EGM. Chilipamushi accused the minority shareholders of wanting to vote for the furtherance of the transaction by show of hands, when voting was supposed to be done according to the number of shares held. ZNCB has 47 minority shareholders, which meant that they would have carried the day had they voted by show of hands.

However, Kashita said the shareholders walked out because of the disagreements in the way the agenda was going to be run. "With regard to amending the articles of association, we needed to know what we were amending and why and if these details were unavailable we couldn't proceed," he said in an interview. "The articles of the company provide for the retirement of one third of the board by rotation each year. This also required the board to appoint a managing director, but that was not the procedure." Kashita also said the minority shareholders walked out because there were no details on the new board members, security clearance and their background.

Chilipamushi said the minority shareholders had made a personal decision and had the option of selling off the shares if they were not happy. Incoming managing director Mark Wiessing said Rabobank was turning a new page for the future of the bank. He noted that ZNCB had a strong background and social role, which Rabobank wanted to pursue further. "We want to recapture the market share taken up by other banks and we want to make the bank profitable," he said. "We'll improve the services for customers and we want to capture the corporate sector as well."

Wiessing said in the next three months, the bank would present its business plan to drive it into the future. "I have mentioned to the staff that no company can exclude retrenchment but that is not in our philosophy. There may be changes in the way we run our business but there's no master plan around retrenchments so far. All workers will continue to be employees until the time of the business plan," Wiessing said.

And Rabobank managing director Arnold Kuijpers said ZNCB's outlook resembled that of Rabobank and that Rabobank would pursue that route. "We don't care about profitability next year. What we want is to grow the bank to higher heights, both in the rural areas and urban areas," he said. The purchase price of the 49 per cent shares remains a closely guarded secret and the public will have to wait until commerce minister Kenneth Konga addresses Parliament, possibly today.

Labels: RABOBANK, ZNCB

posted by MrK @ 4:11 AM