Bard Santner seals strategic Mauritius deal

HARARE, Oct. 30 (NewsDay Live) – Harare-based financial services powerhouse Bard Santner Inc. has accelerated its regional expansion drive following high-level business engagements with Mauritian President Dharambeer Gokhool in Port Louis on Wednesday, aiming to leverage the Indian Ocean island as a strategic gateway for continent-wide investment flows.

The executive delegation was led by Bard Santner board chairman Vinod Bussawah and chief executive officer Senziwani Sikhosana, alongside managing director Tatenda Hungwe, executive director Lucia Chingwaru, and Bard Santner Microfinance Bank managing director Ngonidzashe Chikowore.

The strategic meeting centred on establishing robust cross-border financial services, aligning capital and asset management strategies across regional boundaries, and deepening collaboration with Mauritian financial stakeholders.

“Discussions explored investment management, cross-border financial services and collaboration with Mauritian stakeholders, highlighting Mauritius’ role as a strategic gateway for investment into Africa,” Gokhool’s office announced on social media.

The visit forms a crucial component of Bard Santner’s pan-African mission to connect regional markets by bridging capital, target markets, and investment portfolios across Africa.

Headquartered in Harare, with international offices in Johannesburg and New York, the group provides financial intermediary, corporate finance, asset management, wealth management, and treasury management services.

With several directors, including its chairman, originating from Mauritius, the group intends to expand its operational footprint across the stable island nation, utilising Port Louis as a primary regional financial hub.

This diplomatic push builds on recent high-profile deals, including Bard Santner facilitating local investors’ access to the historic US$1,6 billion initial public offering (IPO) for the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE in Lekki, Lagos.

Owned by Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, the facility is the world’s largest single-train oil refinery, with a re-rated nameplate capacity of 700 000 barrels per day (bpd) and a roadmap to reach 1,4 million bpd by 2029.

The “People’s IPO” seeks to fund an ambitious expansion programme to scale processing capacity at the Lagos complex.

In November last year, Bard Santner brought Dangote, whose group operates across 16 African nations, to Harare to explore over US$1 billion in investments.

The proposed project encompasses an integrated cement manufacturing, limestone and coal mining, and power generation industrial complex, which could expand to US$2 billion with the envisaged oil pipeline from Namibia to Zimbabwe via Botswana.

On the domestic front, Bard Santner recently obtained a deposit-taking microfinance bank licence from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

The institution is tailored to tap into the lucrative multi-billion-dollar diaspora remittance corridor, targeting millions of Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa, Botswana, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.

To steer the institution, Bard Santner Bank unveiled a 13-member board featuring former executives from global institutions including HSBC, KPMG and PwC.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is attempting to emulate Mauritius by developing the Victoria Falls International Financial Services Centre, modelled on the Mauritius International Financial Centre.

By transforming the resort city into a special offshore economic zone, Zimbabwe aims to establish a tax-free international gateway for banking, regional capital, hard-currency transactions and tourism.