Financial services behemoth ZB Financial Holdings seems to be reeling under economic pressures, with the conglomerate reportedly failing to meet creditors’ deadlines as well as failure to maintain its real estate assets.
The diversified financial services group has several real estate assets within the Harare CBD, which are managed by it’s Building society division.
The division is said to be the worst affected, and is failing to efficiently maintain it’s buildings with several of them going for months without running water, cleaning services or functioning elevators.
The deteriorating conditions at its several buildings have reportedly led to a tenant flight with several companies renting it’s properties reportedly leaving as the bank fails to maintain decent standards.
A visit by this reporter to one of the ZB properties in the CBD, the ZB Gardens asset located at Cnr 1st/G.Silundika seemed to confirm the sorry state of affairs, as the elevators weren’t working and have reportedly been in that condition for a month now, at the asset located in the heart of Harare’s Central Business District. The property has eight floors.
The stairs leading up to the upper floors are also very dirty with litter and dust which give a picture of a haunted house being the order of the day. The rest rooms have no functioning systems nor running water, and are rat infested, leaving one wondering if the Harare City Council Officials do actually inspect city buildings before licensing companies to operate.
But then again, in a corruption riddled country one doesn’t need a rocket science degree to understand how such buildings are certified as habitable.
Employees working at the premises who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimization told this reporter that the arm that manages the building has failed to keep the asset in good working order, leaving it to slowly deteriorate.
They said the company that services the elevators hadn’t been paid for months on end and has thus refused to come and service the lifts, demanding a commitment by ZB to start clearing it’s servicing bill.
The elevator management company is said to be owed thousands of dollars in unpaid service fees and is mulling taking legal action to compel the financial services entity to own up to it’s obligations as value keeps getting eroded by inflation.
Contacted for comment, the elevator servicing company’s representative declined to comment saying the only person mandated to speak to the media was out of town and unreachable at the time of publication.
Technicians at the company however, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they had serviced the elevators for a very long time at ZB Buidings but the bank had renaged on payments forcing their company to suspend all servicing at ZB properties until a downpayment and commitment to clearing the bill was done by the bank.
ZB bank was one of the Zimbabwean financial entities to be hit by targeted American sanctions. The Bank was placed in a list of firms under sanctions in 2008 and later removed in 2016.
It was sanctioned by OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control), an arm of the US Treasury department, for it’s links to the then Government of the late President Robert Mugabe which came under biting targeted western sanctions for alleged human rights violations and “undermining of Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions.”
The sanctions led to another local bank, CBZ bank being hit with a staggering USD$385m fine by OFAC for the later’s alleged role in transacting on behalf of ZB internationally. CBZ was however let off the hook and served instead with a stern warning.
The reported struggles being faced by the financial services behemoth is a reflection of the larger economic problems bedeviling the economy, albeit with the Emmerson Mnangagwa government claiming that the economy has stabilized and is poised for growth.
Officials of the bank that we contacted declined to comment. The official spokesperson wasn’t available at the time of publication.
ZB Financial Holdings tracies it’s origins to 1951 when it was formed at as Financial services entity, which was later sold to The Nertherlands Bank of Rhodesia in 1961.
In 1972, the company changed its name from The Netherlands Bank of Rhodesia Limited to Rhodesia Banking Corporation Limited and then to Rhobank in 1979. It changed its name once again in 1981 to Zimbabwe Banking Corporation after the Government purchased the majority shareholding.
In 1989, the directors of the company undertook a restructuring exercise with the objective of bringing all subsidiaries and associates under one investment and holding company, Zimbabwe Financial Holdings Limited. The restructuring allowed the Bank to concentrate exclusively on providing commercial banking services to the public.
The acquisition of a number of subsidiaries over the years allowed the Group to offer a wide range of services which include commercial and merchant banking, hire purchase and leasing as well as trust and executor services. On October 30 2006, the Group adopted a new monolithic brand and formally changed its name to ZB Financial Holdings Limited.
This change was also meant to coincide with the merger with former Intermarket Holdings units, namely(Intermarket Bank, Intermarket Building Society, Intermarket Reinsurance, Intermarket Life and Intermarket Bank Zambia), which units have since adopted the ZB brand.
The current list of the board of Directors of the bank is as follows:
1. Charity Manyeruke; DPhil, MSc, BSc. (Chair)
2. Peter Baka Nyoni; MBA, MA, BA, Adv. Dip in Theology
3. Ronald Mutandagayi; B.Acc, MBL, Chartered Accountant (CEO)
4. Fanuel Kapanje; B.Acc, B.Compt, Chartered Accountant
5. Olatunde Akerele; LLB, MBA (Finance)
6. Terekuona Sydney Bvurere; B.Acc.
7. Pamela Chiromo; B.Compt, ACCA, MBA
8. Jacob Mutevedzi; LLB
9. Alexio Zambezi Mangwiro; BSc Public Health.
ZBBL is the flagship of ZB Financial Holdings Limited, a large Zimbabwean financial services provider whose shares are traded on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange under the symbol ZBFH. As of December 2016, ZBBL’s total assets were US$439.3 million, with shareholders’ equity of US$89.43 million.
As of April 2016, ZBBL maintained a network of 49 branches and 10 agencies across Zimbabwe, including at the following locations, as listed in the 2016 Annual Report.
