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Oliver Kazunga, Acting Business Editor

THE Government says the corporate rescue proceedings being implemented on the Cold Storage Company (CSC) among other issues seeks to examine Boustead Beef operations and capacity to revive operations at CSC.

In January 2019, the Government through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement entered into a joint venture agreement with Boustead Beef and part of the arrangement was that the investor would use CSC assets and extinguish the parastatal’s liabilities.

However, this has been delayed by a cocktail of issues that have led to the placing of CSC under corporate rescue in December last year.

The order was granted by the High Court in Bulawayo under case number 1779/20.

In a statement, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement said the terms of reference of the corporate rescue plan shall among others be to:

“Examine Boustead Beef (Pvt) Ltd’s current operations (investments made and operational initiatives implemented since the signing of the agreement) and establish whether or not it has capacity to revive CSC and advance the Livestock Growth Plan,” reads part of the statement.

Mr Ngoni Kudenga of BDO Zimbabwe Chartered Accountants has been appointed the corporate rescue practitioner with the overall responsibility of ensuring CSC avoids liquidation.

The corporate rescue practitioner heads the CSC rescue plan and is mandated with the overall responsibility to avoid liquidation of the parastatal while ensuring it remains in a solvent state for the benefit of the company’s stakeholders, creditors including the company’s workers.

“The objective is to avoid liquidation and bring CSC back to profitability and contribute to the Livestock Growth Plan and National Development Strategy,” it said. – @okazunga