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Govt upbeat about finding strategic investor for DWS
By
Ephraim Munthali - 26-06-2002 |
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Minister of Commerce and Industry Peter Kaleso has said government is hopeful that a strategic investor for textiles company David Whitehead & Sons (DWS) will be found soon to save the company from collapsing.
“David Whitehead is being privatised and government is looking for an investor. We are actually consulting some people from both within and outside the country. It will be given to the new owner before long,” said Kaleso in an interview after touring Malawi Industrial Research and Technological Development Centre (MIRT-DC) workshop in Blantyre.
He said the buyer will either wholly own it or, if he so wishes leave some shares for the government.
DWS, with over 2,500 employees, has been facing financial problems since the early 1990s when government liberalised the textile industry, bringing an influx of second-hand clothes and cheap imports from the Far East.
It has been struggling to settle debts amounting to over K500 million.
Two years ago, two companies, Crown Fashions Limited and BIS Trust Fund offered K90 million and K50 million, respectively to buy the shares currently owned by Admarc.
He said although donors do not approve of government pumping money into state-owned loss-profit companies, government has the responsibility to save its companies from collapsing.
Kaleso blamed lack of business skills by managers for the closure of companies, saying it would not be plausible to blame everything on high interest rates.
“It is not all government’s fault. Sometimes, it is the management. If you notice that business is not good in that country, you look for investment opportunities in other countries where you can make profits,” he said.
Kaleso said globalisation and liberalisation are good for the economy and encouraged manufacturing companies in the country to be more competitive if they are to fit in the global business. |
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