Turnall Holdings Limited, a Zimbabwean construction company, has successfully raised the equivalent of $8 million from its existing shareholders in order to fund expansion projects.
On June 16 of this year, Turnall made public its aim to fund the local currency equivalent of $8 million in order to create production capacity for fibre cement building goods and a factory to produce glass reinforced pipes. This announcement took place this year.
In order to accomplish this goal, a renounceable rights offer was proposed, which consisted of 4,930.303.080 ordinary shares with a nominal value of ZWL$0.01 apiece and an offer price of ZWL$9.70 per share. The calculation for this was based on the fact that 10 new ordinary shares were issued for every existing ordinary share as of the record date.
On Monday, Turnall reported that the required and anticipated $8 million in donations has finally been received.
With the strengthening of the ZWL during the period of the rights offer, the equivalent ZWL amount became ZWL$36 456 000 000 by the time of the closing of the rights offer on 16 August 2023, Turnall said.
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“At the time when the Turnall Holdings Limited rights offer circular was published on 16 June 2023, US$8 million was equivalent to ZWL$47 824 909 876. However, with the strengthening of the ZWL during the period of the rights offer,” Turnall explained.
“The rights offer brought in a total of 36 947 466 150,23 New Zealand Dollars.” Because the company was able to obtain the amount of money that is equivalent to eight million dollars in US currency through the rights offer, the underwriter is not needed to subscribe for any shares in the company. The company has reached an agreement with the underwriter to waive all underwriting fees, and the agreement is effective immediately.
Turnall’s shareholders’ breakdown for the project
A majority shareholding in Turnall was held by Zimbabwean Brands, which possessed 78.7% of the company’s shares before the capital raising.
However, if other shareholders had not followed their rights, the shareholding structure would have changed because Zimbabwean Brands would have sponsored the capital increase, thereby increasing its position. Even though the capital raising did not affect the ownership structure, the shareholding structure could have changed if other shareholders had not followed their rights.
It is anticipated that the production capacity for fibre cement building goods will have the most advanced technology now available for the manufacturing of fibre cement buildings, will have a capacity that is twice as high as that of the previous plant, and will be much more efficient than equipment from earlier generations.
How the funds would be maximised
According to Turnall, “It will also be capable of being converted to produce non-asbestos (new-tech) building products as the market trends dictate.”
“The expanded production capacity in the Harare factory will enable the plant in Bulawayo to be renovated in order to produce non-asbestos items in addition to AC, thereby answering market demands for new-tech products on both the domestic and export markets. This will be accomplished as a result of the enhanced production capacity in Harare.
“The second project is to install a plant for the production of glass reinforced pipes (GRP) in Harare in order to address the shift in the pipes demand away from asbestos based products, but more specifically to service the growing demand for GRP pipes,”
“The output of this plant will serve not only the local market, but also the regional market for water and sewage infrastructure development projects.” The facility will be equipped with the most cutting-edge technology for producing big diameter GRP goods, which is continuous filament winding.