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New twist to Valley Technology ownership

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TELECOMS firm Spiritage Group chief executive officer Zachary Wazara has distanced the company from the debt-ridden Valley Technology.

TELECOMS firm Spiritage Group chief executive officer Zachary Wazara has distanced the company from the debt-ridden Valley Technology, saying the company had since Januray this year been acquired by an investment vehicle linked to AfrAsia Kingdom Bank Zimbabwe (AKBZ).

Report by Victoria Mtomba

Wazara on Tuesday said his company and AKBZ agreed on December 12, 2012 on the swap deal that resulted in the bank being the majority shareholder in Valley Technology with 80% with the remainder being held by a separate investment vehicle.

AKBZ chief executive officer Lynn Mukonoweshuro did not answer several calls for a comment on Tuesday and yesterday.

Wazara said before the transaction, Valley Technology was a subsidiary of Spiritage. His announcement adds a new twist to the fight between AKBZ and Spiritage Group over Valley Technology assets.

On Monday, AKBZ announced through an advertisement that Valley Technology assets, which include telecoms equipment, would be auctioned on Wednesday (yesterday). The auction sailed through yesterday and all the furniture was sold while the base stations were still subject to confirmation by the plaintiff (AfrAsia).

The company has a telecommunications licence from Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.

Addressing a Press conference, Wazara said the two companies agreed to swap the $14 million debt owed by Spiritage to AfrAsia into equity in December last year. “Kingdom has been running the company for five months. It’s a shock for us because Valley Technology is not owned by Spiritage. From where we sit, a transaction was done in January,” Wazara said.

He said the companies agreed to sign the agreements, but by January 14, 2013 AfrAsia said that it would not sign the papers using the bank’s name as it would raise concerns with the central bank and signed the papers using the name Lalela Investments. He said Lalela Trading was an investment company owned by Kingdom Bank.

“We were comfortable to do that. They said doing the transaction with Lalela would help them. Kingdom assured us that all the debts were passed on to Lalela. Lalela took over all the loans that Valley Technology had,” he said.

Wazara said AKBZ was suing itself as it owned Valley technology.