Padenga Holdings Limited, has diversified into gold mining following the successful acquisition of a 50,01 percent shareholding in Dallaglio Investments (Private) Limited.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)-listed firm has delayed publishing its financial results for the half year ended 30 June 2020 saying it needed time to consolidate financial statements for its newly acquired gold mining venture.
Padenga Holdings has interests in crocodile farming and this year it concluded the acquisition of a 50,01 percent shareholding in Dallaglio Investments (Private) Limited.The company has since been granted a 30-day extension period by the ZSE in which to publish financial results for six months ended June 30,2020.
“Padenga will publish its financial statements for this period on or before the 30th of October 2020,” it said in a notice.
“The delay by Padenga in publishing its financial statements has been caused by the need to consolidate for the first time the financial results for its 50,01 percent investment in Dallaglio mining business.
“The external auditors for Padenga and Dallaglio have not been able to complete their review of the consolidated numbers and they would like to audit the interim financials for Dallaglio.”The exercise is expected to take another two or three weeks to complete.
Padenga acquired Dallaglio from Vast Resources, a diversified mining group. The company is also looking forward to investing in the production of avocados and macadamia. At the moment, Padenga produces and exports crocodilian skins and meat to European and Asia markets. The group is optimistic that both the gold venture and the horticulture project will be successful. With global food demand largely stable and projected to grow, horticulture business is considered value accretive.
The move by Padenga to diversify into gold production and horticulture comes as the global exotic skins industry is facing significant headwinds over the past few years, in particular as bans on exotic skins by some key retailers in the industry is being noted.
In addition, last year, Padenga’s product (crocodile) risk was heightened by the low water levels at Kariba Dam, where the company’s local operations are based. The move to acquire Dallaglio could be strategic in view of the gold’s ‘haven status’ for global investors, which has been further buttressed by the Covid-19 pandemic.