New Zimbabwe government seeks to sell stakes in state-owned companies

Zimbabwe has invited bids for stakes in up to eight loss-making state-owned enterprises, including its national airline and power utility, to help plug a ballooning budget deficit, its deputy finance minister said on Wednesday. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from Robert Mugabe two months ago, is under pressure to deliver on his promises to ease spending pressures on the budget and revitalise the economy, which collapsed especially after violent and chaotic seizures of white-owned commercial farms in early 2000s. “We are diluting our shareholding in those entities and our shareholding might go to zero percent in some entities,” Terence Mukupe said. National airline Air Zimbabwe, which runs four aircraft, is sitting on a more than $300m debt pile.<br/>