Lifestyle Holdings to exit Zambia

Lifestyle Holdings founder Tawanda Nyambirai opened TN Medical Fund Zambia last year to offer medical services to that market.

Nyambirai told NewsDay last week that he was in discussions with Zambian officials interested in taking over the company.

“The price is favourable and we think it’s good that (the business is) managed by Zambians. We will exit Zambia as TN Holdings, but the franchise will continue to be there,” he said.

It, however, could not be immediately established how much the investors were offering.

Nyambirai said the company was rationalising its distribution network in line with its new business model that was now structured around the fast-foods business.

“We are coming up with a new model because our old model was structured around TN Bank. We have realised that the bank is no longer at the centre of our distribution channel,” he said.
Nyambirai said the fast-foods business was competitive and plans were afoot for the company to grow the business.

He acknowledged the poor performance of the share price attributing it to the uncertainty surrounding the direction the company would take after the disposal of TN Bank.

“Our share has not done so well because customers do not understand our new model. The shareholders need to understand what our new model is now,” he said.

Lifestyle Holdings’ share was listed in July 2012 at 2,5 cents and 172 million shares were traded.

Official statistics show that the share has lost 84% of its value since it started trading in July 2012.

The share last traded on January 28 at 1,6 cents.

Nyambirai demerged listed Lifestyle Holdings Limited from TN Holdings and listed it separately.The businessman recently sold his stake in TN Bank in exchange for shareholding in Econet Wireless. Econet Wireless injected $20 million into TN Bank last year and acquired a 45% stake.

TN has supermarkets, pharmacies and furniture retail outlets in the country.