Leading hospitality chain, Sunbird, says plans are still in the pipeline for its recapitalisation.
Sunbird Chairperson, Phillip Madinga, confirmed the development during the company’s Annual General Meeting held in Blantyre on Thursday that the board is still engaging majority shareholder, the Malawi Government to offload some of its shares in the hospitality chain.
Currently, government holds 71 percent stakes in the hotel through a holding company, MDC, while the public and Noel Hayes hold the remaining 12.52 and 16.48 shares respectively.
In an interview on the sidelines of the AGM, Madinga suggested a reduction in government shareholding to 25 percent in a bid to ensure growth of the business’ capital base.
“One of the challenges we face as a business is the funding to embark on a number of projects.
“We have been in negotiation with the government, who are the major shareholders with a possibility of them diluting their shareholding,” suggested Madinga.
He said despite making profits, returns made in the recent past have not been satisfactory, hence, pushing for the recapitalisation option.
He said an alternative option would be for government to still dilute its shareholding to 51 percent, but still the ideal option was to offload more than half of the stakes.
At the AGM, the business also reported a profit after tax of K 1 billion, representing an increase of 34 percent from the K 766 million recorded in 2014.
Sunbird then declared a dividend of K 4 million representing 13 tambala per share.
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