July 25, 2007 (LPAC)--Lonrho, formerly known as the London and Rhodesia Company, announced July 20 that it has raised $66 million from shareholders to form a new subsidiary, Lonzim, to buy up assets in Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, with a "significant opportunity for future growth" -- the word "future" meaning, when President Mugabe is gone, according to the Financial Times online of the same date. David Lenigas, executive chairman of Lonrho, said he plans to raise a total of $200 million for the Lonzim subsidiary through a share offering soon to be launched in London.

Lonrho is effectively an arm of the British monarchy, as reported in Tiny Rowland -- The Ugly Face of Neocolonialism in Africa by an EIR investigative team (1993). Thus, havin collapsed Zimbabwe's economy through economic sanctions, the monarchy now proposes to buy it up for pence on the pound, regaining the control denied it by President Mugabe.

But it may not be so simple. The Financial Times reports, "At a Bulawayo business forum this week, many members seemed determined to batten down the hatches and not to sell." Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's second largest city. An even stronger obstacle may be "the Indigenisation and Empowerment Bill, which the government has promised to pass into law within a month. This would authorize the authorities to seize 51% of the shareholding of foreign firms in order to 'empower' black Zimbabweans," according to the Financial Times.