Staff Reporter
RICHARD CHISHOLM, Evo’s Chief Executive Officer, says the overwhelming vote of Trustco shareholders in favour of the Evo transaction is a great opportunity for the financial group to work with a growing and ambitious company like Trustco.
Chisholm was speaking from his US headquarters after the Trustco Shareholders’ vote that will allow Trustco Group Holdings to raise more than NAD 2 billion through the issuance of 97 427 000 shares earlier at the company’s Namibian headquarters in Windhoek.
The shareholders’ approval follow an earlier official Stock Exchange announcement on 27 June wherein the shareholders were advised that Trustco and the Japanese based Evo-fund entered into a warrant agreement.
The warrants issued to Evo allow for the subscription of Trustco shares at fixed prices – between N$9 and N$30 – in four tranches over three years. With this shareholder approval, the warrant agreement became effective this morning, providing capital for the group and paving the way for Evo to become a long-term shareholder in Trustco.
Chisholm said: “Evo is excited to commence this relationship with Trustco and looks forward to create catered solutions that allow Trustco to achieve its goals.”
The CEO of Trustco, Dr Quinton van Rooyen, on his part said the Evo transaction will drive an aggressive expansion of the mining operations of Trustco Resources and its ‘Mine to Market’ Strategy. The expansion will be from the exploratory process to full production at NNDC, a mining entity operating in the Kunene region, Morse Investments, a diamond cutting and polishing factory in Windhoek and the Meya Mining which operates in Sierra Leone. Both mining licences were secured.
This will also capitalize the group’s property investments – the Elisenheim Property Development, Elisenheim Nature Estate, Lafrenz Industrial Park, the Omabala Estate in Ondangwa and Farm Herboths (provisionally approved recently) – that will contribute significantly to the high public demand for serviced lands and housing to Namibians from all walks of life.
Evo is a financial group with a focus on a wide range of financial services and activities. The firm was originally founded in 2002 as an alternative investment manager and has since developed into a diverse set of business lines committed to innovation and continued development and sales of financial IT systems in addition to its core investment and asset management business, across 7 countries.
The shareholders approval “is a great Evo-opportunity to work with the growing and ambitious Trustco,” Chisholm said.
