Participation in placement

29 November 2010

LONRHO PLC

("Lonrho" or the "Company")

Lonrho participation in private placement by LonZim Plc

LonZim Plc ("LonZim"), a 24.61% associate company of Lonrho, has today announced that it has raised £4,987,904 (before expenses), by means of the issue of 17,813,944 new ordinary shares of £0.0001 each in LonZim ("Lonzim Shares") at a price of 28p per LonZim Share (the "Placing") and that such shares will rank pari passu with the existing LonZim Shares in issue.

The Placing has been principally conducted amongst new and existing institutional shareholders in LonZim. Lonrho has participated in the Placing to maintain its percentage shareholding of 24.61% by subscribing for 4,384,011 new LonZim Shares at a cost of £1,227,523.

Given the commonality of executive directors between Lonrho and LonZim (being David Lenigas, Geoffrey White, David Armstrong and Emma Priestley) the participation in the Placing by Lonrho is a Related Party Transaction for the purposes of the AIM Rules for Companies. Having consulted with Beaumont Cornish Limited, the Nominated Adviser to the Company, the non-executive directors of the Company and who are not Lonrho directors (being Ambassador Frances Cook and Kiran Morzaria) consider the terms of Lonrho's participation in the Placing is fair and reasonable in so far as the shareholders of the Company are concerned.

Kiran Morzaria, Non-Executive Director of Lonrho commented: 

"Lonrho is delighted to see the institutional support from existing and new shareholders in LonZim. After due consideration by the Lonrho non-executive directors, they decided that it was appropriate for Lonrho to partake in this placement and maintain its equity position in LonZim. We believe the LonZim portfolio of businesses in Zimbabwe are experiencing the beginning of economic recovery, resulting in strong reported growth in turnover. We continue to believe that Zimbabwe has the potential once again to become a significant economy in the region".

For further information:

Enquiries