Zambia: State in deal to benefit nation

ZAMBIA would sell its 30 percent stake this year in the local unit of Germany’s Linde, the biggest gases supplier in southern Africa, with the stock priced at a “deep discount” to benefit citizens, the government said yesterday. Zambia’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) was leading the sale process, which would prioritise economic empowerment for citizens over raising funds for the government, Charles Mate, the corporate affairs director at the state-owned IDC, said. The sale might be completed by the end of June, he said. The sale of the stake in Afrox Zambia, as the Linde unit is known, becomes the first deal the IDC will undertake since then-President Michael Sata established it to spur development in January last year. – Bloomberg