Farai Rwodzi & Interfin Bank’s risk taking unwise

Farai Rwodzi & Interfin Bank’s risk taking unwise
On 6 July 2010 according to news reports “We saw potential where everyone else saw risk,” Farai Rwodzi, Interfin Bank Zimbabwe chairman, said just before trades opened to celebrate Interfin’s attempted to hide its tracks of taking over a disputed asset ( Century /CFX Bank ) and sanitize an illegal transaction. “Today the deal is done. We have a solid balance sheet; Interfin will never be the same again.” Farai Rwodzi continued.

It is clear at this stage that Farai Rwodzi and Interfin Bank Zimbabwe felt their stunt of taking over a disputed Century/CFX Bank and proceed to rename and rebrand it as Interfin Banking Corporation (IBC) would work wonders and everyone would forget that they are trading in stolen assets and trying to conceal the true nature of the transaction they were executing.

Rwodzi and CFX/Interfin Bank clearly know that CFX Bank was grabbed from me and ENG Capital and because of that it is a disputed asset which brings with it significant reputational risk. The whole Zimbabwe Financial market knows this that’s why all other major participants avoided investing in CFX Bank before the ownership dispute was resolved .It remains to be seen whether Farai Rwodzi and Interfin Banks’ gamble will pay off. The wisdom of taking over a disputed bank and hoping to rebrand it remains suspect.

The ownership dispute was triggered by the special bargain sale of 309,000,000 shares on 12 May 2004 but the total shares claimed by me and my Company is 900,000,000 the balance was transferred in peace meal fashion to avoid detection of the fraud and transaction laundering that was being perpetrated. CFX was nothing more than a forex trading shop which was used to swallow Century Bank as a cover up of the illegal and fraudulent seizure of the Century Bank. I lost Century Bank shares owned through ENG Capital after they were “fraudulently” converted into CFX Bank which took over Century Bank assets and Branch network.

The 309 million Century Bank Shares I owned through my Company ENG Capital were fraudulently transferred and converted at the time of the merger between CFX Bank and Century in 2004 and Interfin Bank proceeded to take over CFX ignoring the disputed ownership of CFX Bank and the attendant reputational risk. I even wrote to Credit Suisse to dissuade them from taking up shareholding in CFX FS. Credit Suisse has 40% shareholding in FBZ.


CFX/Interfin Holdings reverse listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) using the infrastructure and legal structure taken over from the disputed Century/CFX Bank . CFX had floated the equity offering to raise the minimum capital requirements set by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe following the collapse of its equity-financing negotiations with the Finance Bank of Zambia.These talks collapsed once Finance Bank of Zambia discovered the raging ownership dispute which Interfin Bank is seeking to conceal and hide by rebranding Century/CFX Bank as CFX/Interfin Banking Corporation (IBC)

This article appears courtesy of GMRI CAPITAL – www.gmricapital.com . It is original content generated for 3MG MEDIA.

Gilbert Muponda is an Investment Banker and Founder of GMRI CAPITAL . He can be reached at; www.ZimFace.com and www.facebook.com/muponda

Email: gilbert@gilbertmuponda.com . Skype ID: gilbert.Muponda

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