A spokesman for Zim Israel lines announced here that the company will sell its 40 percent interest in the Israel-Ghana shipping firm, the Black Star Line.
A general tendency toward achievement of Ghana ownership in investments in Ghana as well as nationalization trends in that country were considered here as factors in the Zim decision.
(The Ghana Transport and Communications Minister announced in Accra that his government planned to buy Zim Navigation Company’s 40 percent share in the Black Star Line to make it completely government owed.)
The Zim spokesman said the company’s share would be sold to the Government of Ghana which intends to invest some 12,000,000 pounds sterling in ten more ships, a plan which exceeded the ability of the Israel firm to handle.
The spokesman said that commercial and nautical management of the Black Star Line would be retained by Zim under a new agreement which would continue until 1967. The prior agreement ended in 1962. The managerial agreement will cover the expanded Black Star Line, the spokesman said.
“Ghana has decided that Israel’s managerial contribution is sufficiently valuable in itself and prolonged the original contract,” the spokesman stated, explaining that the line has produced profits in its first year of operation. Israel’s arrangement with the line will be similar to those between Zim and the Burmese Five Star Shipping Company, which is managed by Israelis as a nationally owned Burmese firm.
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