Banker Mukupe turns to politics

Published: 21 June 2015

Collapsed Allied Financial Holdings (AFH) former chief executive Terence Mukupe has turned to politics and is eyeing the Harare East parliamentary seat under the Zanu PF ticket.

Mukupe is expected to lock horns in the primaries with the party's losing candidate in the 2013 general elections Noah Mangondo, Stalin Mau Mau and Mavis Gumbo among others to replace Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s deposed parliamentarian Tendai Biti.

"I submitted my CV for verification to enable me to contest in the party's primary elections and get the ticket to represent the party in the forthcoming by-election," he confirmed yesterday.

Mukupe, who last year was appointed as the banking group's chief executive - under a deal with a Mauritius-based Allied Fund consortium - was expected to bolster the institution's operations due to his wealth of experience.

However, Allied Bank's move early this year to voluntarily cede their licence came on the back of a flopped Mukupe-led deal that was targeted at injecting around $30 million fresh capital into the financial institution and a long engagement with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to pursue recapitalisation options.

AFH was set to be wholly-acquired by the listed fund in Mauritius which in turn would raise capital for Allied Bank.

Debbie Peters, a seasoned Wall Street banker, was understood to be part of the Mauritian-based fund.

Peters has renowned experience in capital raising, private equity, fund management and investments in New York, Johannesburg and Lagos markets.

Formerly known as ZABG Bank, the financial institution was later rebranded to Allied Bank after Transport minister Obert Mpofu acquired the bank through his company, Trebo and Khays in 2012.

If the Mukupe-led deal was to sail through, Mpofu's shareholding was going to be diluted significantly to 25 percent post the transaction.

Market watchers say there was lot of expectation for the revival of the banking institution given Mukupe and Peters' backgrounds which were expected to play a pivotal role in raising capital for the bank and the pursuit of opportunities in various sub-sectors in the financial services industry.

Prior to his engagement with AFH, Mukupe was employed by Russian investment company Renaissance Group as chief executive of its Zimbabwean subsidiary Renaissance Capital.

- dailynews