The Financial Gazette
Financial Gazette Reporter
16 May 2013
PEARSON International, the world’s leading publishing company, is contemplating selling its local unit Longman Zimbabwe to a local distributor, The Financial Gazette’s Companies & Markets (C&M) has established.
The development comes as the United Kingdom headquartered company sought to comply with the country’s Indigenisation and Empowerment Act.
Insiders told C&M that the future of Longman, one of the country’s oldest publishers, has been under intense speculation for the past four months after it emerged that its earlier indigenisation proposal was rejected by government on the grounds that it did not meet certain regulatory requirements.
Investigations by C&M this week suggest that the company, through the director of its African operations, this week informed workers of its intention to change its business model from ownership to a preferred local distributor who will represent Pearson International and continue to serve the market with the company’s products.
Negotiations with the potential buyer are said to be at an advanced stage and it is understood that the new owner will inherit current staff.
A reliable source told C&M that management had arranged a meeting with workers last week where an official announcement on the company’s future was expected to be announced.
“It’s actually pointing to that and I can tell you the company is seriously considering transferring its ownership to a local distributor.
“There are meetings happening as we speak. The company director in charge of African operations is discussing this issue with management and representatives of the workers. They have actually instructed lawyers to start working on the paperwork. We expect to have an official announcement next month,†a source said this week.
When contacted for comment this week, Longman Zimbabwe managing director, Mwazvita Madondo, expressed ignorance on the development, saying: “I don’t know anything about it. Whoever told you about this should give you more information.â€
Market watchers say business for Longman Zimbabwe was still very viable but the country’s indigenisation and economic empowerment law had forced them to take the latest action.
Longman publishes educational materials starting at early childhood materials for pre-school children and continuing up to ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels as well as tertiary education.
Their books are compiled by a team of locally and internationally experienced educationists and teachers.
In 2010, Longman was awarded a five-year United Nations Children’s Fund contract to print 30 million primary school text books to 5 500 schools ahead of other bidders.
This was to avert a catastrophic textbook shortage and further decline in the country’s educational standards.
The awarding of the tender created disconted in the industry, with two major competitors, the Zimbabwe Publishing House and College Press, calling for its suspension.
However the Minister of Education David Coltart, who approved the tender, defended Longman saying it won the tender because of its charges and its quality.
Unicef forked out US$52 million on the tender.