Finance Bank faces rivalry in acquiring Zim’s CFX Bank

By Nchima Nchito Jr
Fri 06 Nov. 2009,


FINANCE Bank Zambia’s (FBZ) plans of acquiring a controlling stake in CFX Bank of Zimbabwe have suffered yet another setback following announcements that Interfin Bank is also eyeing the institution.

Recently, there have been several hurdles faced by FBZ in its plans to acquire a controlling stake in CFX.

The most recent snag involved the application by lawyers representing Gilbert Muponda, threatening legal action should a scheduled meeting for November take place at which CFX was supposed to decide on the offer by FBZ.

FBZ’s proposed acquisition of CFX Financial Services would be largely funded by Credit Suisse that has a 40 per cent stake in the institution.

CFX Bank was formed after a merger between CFX Financial Services (CFX) and Century Holdings Limited in 2004.

According to local reports in Zimbabwe, Muponda’s lawyers have also written to Interfin Bank asking them to trade carefully on their reported interest in acquiring a controlling stake in CFX Bank which Muponda alleges was illegally and irregularly snatched from him.

“We recently learnt, through some local media reports, that Interfin Holdings Limited is now firm favourite to acquire a controlling stake in CFX Financial Services Limited ahead of the Finance Bank of Zambia. We are of the humble view that your company should formally be made aware of our client’s proprietary interest in the shareholding of CFX Financial Services Ltd,” wrote the lawyers to Interfin.

“Kindly note that our client’s main bone of contention is the argument that CFX Financial Services Limited took over Century Bank which belonged to ENG Capital (Pvt) Ltd. Whether or not ENG Capital (Pvt) Ltd is operational is not relevant at this juncture. What is relevant is the fact that Century Bank was owned by ENG Capital (Pvt) Ltd at the time that it was acquired by CFX Financial Services Limited. Put alternatively, it is incumbent upon CFX Financial Services Limited to provide a clear audit trail of how it acquired Century Bank.”

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