Bard Santner deepens regional expansion with Mauritius State House visit

HARARE - Bard Santner, the Harare-based financial services group, took its regional expansion plans to the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, when a top-level delegation was received by President Dharambeer Gokhool at State House in Port Louis.

The group was led by board chairperson Vinod Bussawah and chief executive Senziwani Sikhosana.

Gokhool’s office described it as a courtesy visit. In a statement on his social media platforms, it said talks “explored investment management, cross-border financial services and collaboration with Mauritian stakeholders”, and touted the island’s standing as a gateway for investment into Africa.

For Bard Santner, the choice of destination is no accident. Several of its directors, the chairman included, are Mauritian, and the firm wants a foothold in a jurisdiction that has made itself the continent’s favourite financial crossroads.

Headquartered in Harare, with offices in Johannesburg and New York, it offers asset management, corporate finance, wealth management, treasury and financial intermediary services.

The visit comes after a busy few months for the firm. It recently helped Zimbabwean investors gain access to the US$1.6 billion initial public offering of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE, the Lagos refinery owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote.

The offering is meant to fund an expansion from about 700,000 barrels a day to 1.4 million by 2029.

Bard Santner also brought Dangote himself to Harare in November last year, to pitch an investment of more than US$1 billion in an integrated cement, limestone, coal mining and power complex. The figure could climb to US$2 billion if a proposed oil pipeline from Namibia to Bulawayo, through Botswana, goes ahead.

More recently, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe granted the group a microfinance bank licence. The bank will target diaspora remittances flowing home from Zimbabweans in South Africa, Botswana, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and elsewhere.

Last week Bard Santner unveiled a 13-member board for the bank, including former executives of HSBC, KPMG and PwC.

Mauritius is also the model for Zimbabwe’s own ambitions. The government is planning a Victoria Falls International Financial Services Centre, which would turn the resort town into a special economic zone, a tax-free gateway for banking, hard-currency transactions, investment and tourism.