Spoornet bids to manage Zambian rail links

Leonard Neill
SPOORNET IS bidding to operate and manage assets of Zambia Railways on a 20 to 25 year concession. But an announcement of the outcome of bids is not likely to be made until July next year.
The South African rail authority is among four companies which have tendered for the concession, the others being Edlow Resources (US), Canada's Canac, which is bidding in co-operation with Norconsult of Norway, and a Zambian concern, Sheltam.
The bids are for freight services linking the main mining towns, a freight service linking the Copperbelt city of Kitwe with the tourist city of Livingstone and a passenger service between Kitwe and Livingstone.
Spoornet is leading a consortium which includes Canada's Canarail and New Limpopo Bridge Projects Investments. The last named is registered in Mauritius and comprises South African firms Nedcor Investment Bank, Old Mutual, Sanlam and Genbel Securities.
Zambian Railway officials handling the privatisation bids will be evaluating those for technical operations until January 12 but have announced that financial bids will only be opened on January 15.
At present it would appear that the strongest opposition to the Spoornet bid would be that from Edlow Resources, which is already well established on the African continent and is currently operating a 20 year concession to run Malawi Railways, which it was awarded in 1999. It is also privatising a 615km railway in northern Mozambique which connects Malawi with the port of Nacala, on the Mozambique coast.