DIVERSIFIED investment group ZimRe Holdings Ltd (ZimRe) has invested US$11 million into two signature development projects under the Eagle Real Estate Investment Trust (Eagle REIT), businessdigest can reveal.
In Mazowe, the group is constructing various structures, including trade centres, healthcare facilities, and retail spaces, which the company believes will transform the area. In Victoria Falls, developments are underway on 12 hectares of land.
“In terms of internal requirements or investments, significantly most of our capital expenditure has been towards investment projects," ZimRe chief executive officer Stanley Kudenga said in an interview.
"(On) the issue of Mazowe Mall and Victoria Falls projects, which are under the Eagle REIT project, last year, we committed in excess of US$11 million towards (these) projects.
“Our strategic priority and focus is really to see through these projects, the Eagle REIT, Mazowe project and Victoria Falls.
"We also want to get a strong play from the regional operations, which were hamstrung by the issue of capitalisation, which is why we have done restructuring in Botswana and we have put more capital into Mozambique.
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"So, we really want to see a strong contribution coming through from the regional operations. The heightened capital spending marks a strategic shift for the group as it looks to drive growth through major real estate developments across the region," he added.
ZimRe has investments and operations in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and is headquartered in Zimbabwe.
“One area that we are also going to focus on is expanding our footprint. Presently, we are predominantly in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region and we intend to look beyond Sadc and go into East and West Africa, where we were until the impact of sanctions. So, we are looking at coming back and reopening those markets,” Kudenga said.
He also highlighted the group’s drive for innovation in its life and pensions businesses.
“From the customer front, we are seeing quite a lot of push and aggressiveness in terms of innovation on life and pension," Kudenga said.
"There has been a push and a lack of confidence in terms of giving products that really address the customer's needs going into the future, given the current risk and so forth.
“We are really pushing for innovation. We want to provide the customers with the products. At the end of the day, they can preserve their investments in terms of currency risk.”
He expressed optimism about the company's outlook, noting that improved political and economic stability would enable better planning and progress without excessive focus on political and currency risks.
“Barring the impact of the drought, we are now hopeful that there could be some bit of stability, especially in Zimbabwe, which allows us to plan and move ahead without too much focus on the political and currency risk, which is a good thing," Kudenga said.
"Zimbabwe is our base and this is where the capital to grow would come from."
According to the group's 2023 annual report, profit increased by 321% to ZW$304,9 billion (US$49,9 million) compared to the same period in the previous year.
“Across all key lines of our businesses, we witnessed exceptional profitability in real terms throughout the year 2023,” the company revealed.
In inflation-adjusted terms, the group's insurance contract revenue experienced a remarkable increase of 140%, reaching ZW$255 billion (US$41,8 million).
This strong growth was driven by the group's local reinsurance and pensions business operations, which collectively contributed 78% to the total premiums written during the year, compared to 83% in 2022.
The premium income growth was primarily due to expansion into new markets, the introduction of innovative product offerings, and increased new product uptake.