Botswana Sold Anglo Shares to Cover Deficit
March 22, 04
The Botswana government revealed that it sold part of Debswana’s Anglo American shares to help cover its deficit. The sale of 6.87 million shares of London-based Anglo fetched £87.2 million.
The country is a 50 percent owner of Debswana, the other half is held by De Beers.
Serwalo Tumelo, Permanent Secretary in the Finance and Development Planning Ministry and Chairman of the Debswana board, dispelled by that talk that the sale was a sign of loss of confidence in Anglo American.
The country is facing a budget deficit for the second year in a row after 16 straight years of a balanced budget.