
Diversified financial services group, Capricorn Investment Group, has spent a total of N$428 million to increase stakes in Capricorn Investment Holdings Botswana and Cavmont Capital Holdings, the Group’s Chief Financial Officer, Jaco Esterhuyse, told the Windhoek Observer this week.
“The aggregate purchase consideration for the Botswana and Zambia interests amounted to N$428 million,” he said.
The Capricorn group now holds a 65 percent shareholding in Capricorn Investment Holdings Botswana, which in turn holds 100 percent shareholdings in Bank Gaborone and BG Insurance Agency.
The group has also increased its stake in Cavmont Capital Holdings Zambia to an effective 97,9 percent. Cavmont Capital holds a 100 percent shareholding in Cavmont Bank.
Esterhuyse said Capricorn has well established and respected businesses in both Botswana and Zambia, and would like to grow the two businesses’ market share and contribution to the group to a substantial level.
He ruled out expansion plans to other countries in the region, adding that the group has no immediate plans to bring in a foreign player into Bank Windhoek, which is the group’s flagship business and cash cow.
In 2012, the Barclays group was on the verge of acquiring a 49.9 percent stake in Capricorn Investment Holdings, the parent company of Bank Windhoek, before the deal fell through at the last minute as Barclays restructured its African business.
Recently, the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF), the largest institutional investor in Namibia, acquired a further 25 percent interest in Capricorn, becoming the second largest shareholder in the group, with a 26 percent stake.
CIH and Capricorn Group Chairman, Koos Brandt, said the investment by GIPF and the increased stakes in both Zambia and Botswana were key to achieving the group’s aim of diversifying its business interests and expanding its footprint in the geographical regions it operates in.
“We enter this new era with GIPF as shareholder with anticipation and confidence and look forward to the role they will play, not only as shareholder, but also through their representation on the board of Capricorn Group,” Brandt said.