Harare — Zimbabwe’s largest mobile telecoms company Econet Wireless plans to raise $130m from shareholders, to avoid defaulting on foreign loans that it is struggling to settle due to a severe dollar crunch, it said on Tuesday. The Southern African nation has been hit by the worst shortages of cash since dumping its own currency in favour of the US dollar in 2009. The introduction of a "bond note" currency in November has not ended long queues at banks, which have continued to impose stringent limits on cash withdrawals. Econet will offer new shares and sell debentures at a discount of 5c to Tuesday’s price of 30c, to raise money to avoid defaulting on external obligations by the company and its subsidiaries, it said in a statement. The $130m is the largest amount that any Zimbabwean company has attempted to raise from shareholders since 2009, when the nation started using the US dollar, according to stock exchange data. But analysts said a requirement for shareholders to deposit mo...
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