The efforts of Hwange Colliery’s administrators to breathe life into the debt-laden and underperforming coal miner remain fruitless. In its latest annual results, Hwange, which is listed in Harare, Johannesburg and London, had little to hearten investors, the biggest of which is the Zimbabwean government with a 37% stake and exposure of $138m in loans to the colliery. Operationally and financially, Hwange remained technically insolvent, with sharply diminished cash. Cash on the balance sheet dropped to $1.6m by the end of December 2018 from $8.9m a year earlier, leaving the company reliant on its internally generated cash and whatever loans it can secure to fund its wish list of plans to save the company.

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