Lonrho’s shares fell by 1.19p to 3.7p after it emerged that LonZim, a Zimbabwe-focused investment group that it floated in 2007, had been buying shares in Lonrho, its largest shareholder, without telling anyone.
LonZim spent almost £3 million buying nearly 60 million shares in Lonrho, with which it shares most of its directors, over a three-month period, including participating in a private placing in November, but failed to
disclose the purchases as a related-party transaction. The company also failed to inform Collins Stewart, its nominated adviser, which is understood to have now moved to sever all ties with both LonZim and Lonrho, after what is believed to have been a rocky relationship. David Lenigas, who chairs both companies, last night denied any wrongdoing by the AIM-listed groups and said that he was already in discussions with a
number of parties interested in becoming LonZim’s new adviser, with a view to relisting as soon as possible. LonZim suspended its shares at 31p while it reviews the transaction.
Ramco soared 16¾p to 58¾p after Mesopotamia Petroleum, in which it has a 32.66 per cent stake, signed a joint-venture agreement with the state-owned Iraq Drilling Company to drill a large number of new oil wells in the country in the first deal of its type signed with a foreign group since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Cadogan Petroleum fell by 2.7p to 5.8p after its successful appeal related to a challenge to its Pirkovskoe licence in Ukraine was overturned.
The Zim Situation
Post published in: Economy