Published: 30 October 2013

Interfin Financial Services (IFS) is talking to at least three potential investors that are interested in bailing out its troubled banking subsidiary.

IFS is the holding company of Interfin Bank, which was shut down and put under the management of a curator by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last year following solvency challenges.

The curatorship runs up to June 2014. IFS, which was suspended from trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) following the problems at its banking division last year, said in an update to shareholders it was still pursuing capitalisation and loan recovery initiatives for the bank.

"Three potential investors have expressed interest in investing into the bank and negotiations are currently underway," said IFS chairman Mr Tim Chiganze, without revealing the identity of the investors.

The new investors would be expected to capitalise Interfin Bank to the meet the minimum capital threshold of $100 million.

At the time of its closure, the bank had a negative core capital balance of $93 million.

Meanwhile, Chiganze said initiatives to recover the $105,7 million which the institution was owed by various stakeholders were underway.

"Loan repayments by borrowers have remained very slow due to the number of cases in the courts and the tight liquidity conditions prevailing in the economy. As all the loans had been provided against, all collections will result in a reduction of the capital gap," he said.

IFS said 248 summonses had been issued to the institution's debtors, with at least $500 000 having been recovered so far.


- New Ziana

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