Dubai company to take over Zimbabwe’s best hotel on Sunday

Zimbabwe’s Meikles Hotel new owner, Dubai based Albwardy Investment, will take over ownership of the iconic hotel on Sunday, the company said yesterday.

Meikles Limited sold the hotel as it felt it no longer had the financial muscle to keep running it and upgrading it to required international standards.

While the finer details of the deal, which has since got the requisite approvals including that of shareholders, remains closely guarded, Meikles Limited had said an investment of around US$30 million was required to upgrade the hotel.

Meikles Hotel is one of two five-star hotels in Zimbabwe’s capital city.

Company secretary, Thabani Mpofu in an update on the acquisition, said “the requisite terms for regularising the control of Meikles Hotel to the buyer per the sale and purchase agreements have been met”.

“The buyer will take effective control of the Meikles Hotel on 1 March 2020,” he said.

Acquisition of the hotel has been a roller coaster ride for Albwardy Investment which initially tried to acquire a controlling stake in the Meikles Limited group three years ago, but the deal failed to sail through.

The Dubai based firm then made a return, this time only targeting the group’s prime hospitality asset –the Meikles Hotel.

Meikles Limited made its first public disclosure about the potential sale in February last year and updated the market more than 10 times on progress of the disposal.

Following the sale, the group, which has been in existence for over a century, will focus its energies on its other joint managed hotels, the Victoria Falls Hotel and Cape Grace, businesses in retail, agriculture and guard services.

Founded in the 1970s, Albwardy Investment is a diversified group with operations in over 20 countries, with subsidiaries in sectors such as food distribution, retail, construction, shipyards, hospitality and hotels.-New Ziana

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