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Innscor Africa Limited intends to list Simbisa Brands separately — (Picture innscorafrica.com)

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
CONGLOMERATE, Innscor Africa Limited, is set to unbundle its quick service restaurant business, Simbisa Brands and list it separately to promote investment flexibility in the stand-alone entity. The firm’s board of directors in May approved the unbundling of the subsidiary and its listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

Brands within the Simbisa portfolio include Chicken Inn, Pizza Inn, Creamy Inn, Baker’s Inn, and Fish Inn. On August 5, Simbisa was incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Innscor and effective October 1.

The subsidiary acquired through scheme of reconstruction all the assets and liabilities of the QSR business from Innscor in exchange for 541,593,440 ordinary shares of $0,0001 nominal value on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

“The proposed unbundling and listing, which is subject to the approval of the shareholders of Innscor at an EGM to be held on 2nd of November 2015 . . . will be effected through a distribution of entire issued share capital of Simbisa to the shareholders of Innscor registered as such at the end of business day on the 30th of October 2015 through a dividend in specie,” said Innscor in a notice of an extraordinary general meeting to shareholders.

Principal reasons for the unbundling and listing of the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) business among others are to unlock value for the shareholders and enhancing the ability of the operation to pursue strategies that maximise shareholder value.

It is believed this would create a clear operational focus that will be attractive to investors.

“The principal reasons for the unbundling and listing of the QSR business are as follows: to establish investment flexibility for investors; to create financial independence and enhanced transparency for the company so it can report independently to its shareholders, allowing accurate evaluation of business and to the business to undertake mergers with and acquisitions of entities in complementary spheres of operation, without competing internally with other Innscor divisions for allocation of capital,” said Innscor.

The QSR business opened its inaugural Chicken Inn outlet in Harare in 1987.

Since then, the QSR business has expanded to 170 outlets in Zimbabwe and 209 outlets in the region through the addition of new brands and the franchising of existing brands through third-party licences.

In 1998, Innscor listed on the ZSE, utilising the QSR business to spread its footprint into Africa as a diversified Pan-African operation. In the process QSR outlets were opened in Zambia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius, Swaziland and Lesotho.

“A major contributing factor to the success of the QSR business has been the strategic placing of outlets. QSR stores can be found along busy traffic routes, in central business districts, in urban areas and in food courts, all of which ensure consistent access to large volumes of consumers,” said the firm.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2015, the QSR operation recorded a profit after tax amounting to $7.5 million compared to $6.1 million in the prior year.

Innscor said Simbisa was unique as it was not only owning intellectual property rights of its brands within its portfolio but also owner-operates outlets of the QSR brands.

Furthermore, Simbisa owns the master licence to other successful brands such as Galisto’s Africa, Nando’s (Zimbabwe only), Steers (Zimbabwe only), and Vida E Caffe (Mauritius only).