By KENNEDY MUPESENI –

THE Engineering Institute of Zambia (EIZ) has offloaded 30 million shares and each will cost K2 to be bought by members under its special purpose vehicle, EIZ Properties Plc.
A good chunk of the proceeds would go towards the construction of the office space in Lusaka.
EIZ recently embarked on a project to build its headquarters, therefore, seeking to raise K60 million.
EIZ vice president-policy publications and national development George Sitali said the institute wanted to avoid raising funds on the commercial market but from members.
“EIZ currently holds 40 per cent in EIZ Properties Plc equivalent to 20 million shares, thus the current offering constitutes 60 per cent through the 30 million shares which we seek to sell to our members,” Mr Sitali said.
This transaction has since been registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and EIZ Properties Plc has confirmed being quoted on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE).
Mr Sitali said this in an interview in Lusaka yesterday.
He said the institute had a lot of options but picked on raising capital through share holding to give members chance for them to have a stake in the special purpose vehicle.
EIZ has a membership of more than 25,000 engineering professionals and regulates more than 2,000 engineering firms.
The breakthrough goal was the participation of 15,000 members at a minimum of K2,000.
Given that scenario, the institution could raise more than K30 million, thereby avoiding the debt option and cap the institutional investors coming on board.
He feared that if the project participation failed, EIZ would be forced to try the debt option.
Under this option, the institute had interactions with banks to finance the project.
There was also a serious expression of interest from an offshore foreign bank to finance construction and warned that the down-side of the debt option would erode member value due to interest payable.