eBusiness Weekly
In 1966 the Mashonaland & Provincial Trust Company (Pvt) Ltd and Mashonaland Real Estate (Pvt) Ltd formed the original structure of Mashonaland Holdings Limited. Other early acquisitions included complementary construction and development companies, including the brickfields west of Harare now operated by Willdale Limited.
Much of the Greystone Park Flat and Housing Development was undertaken during this time by Mash.
The Company became the first property company to be listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in 1969.
The group subsequently expanded into the industrial sector, with the emphasis on import substitution in the light engineering businesses with the new factory complex and head offices built in Graniteside in the early 1980’s.
Trading concerns in hardware, electrical and the motor spares sectors were added to the portfolio. At its peak in the 1990’s the diversified conglomerate employed almost 5 000 staff including those at the brickfields in Harare and Gweru.
In 1987 Mashonaland Holdings acquired land at Ruwa which it transformed into the Ruwa Growth Point.
The brainchild of the then chairman, Mr T C Hardy, a satellite town east of Harare was established, incorporating industrial and commercial stands, as well as large residential areas for low, medium and high density housing. All infrastructure and many of the factories and houses were built by Mash.
The decision to rationalise the Group’s operations was effected in the early 2000’s with the electrical and light engineering manufacturing businesses, along with various trading operations, incorporated into Powerspeed Limited, which was then listed as a public company on the ZSE.
Similarly, the brickmaking operations were listed under Willdale Limited. Following these de-mergers, Mashonaland Holdings Limited remained with its core properties into which the then major shareholders and other interested parties reversed their own property portfolios in order to establish, by way of a rights offer, the “new Mash” in October 2003.
Thus, the company returned to its original core business.
Mashonaland Holdings Limited is now a fully-fledged property investment and development company with its headquarters in ZB Life Towers in the central business district of Harare.
