Expression of Interest in Basotho Fruit and Vegetable Canners Facility

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THE LESOTHO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION PRESENTS

AN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY!!!!

INVITATION FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST IN BASOTHO FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNERS (BFVC) FACILITY.

BACKGROUND

Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC) is a parastatal of Government of Lesotho mandated to “initiate, promote and facilitate the development of manufacturing and processing industries, mining and commerce in a manner calculated to raise the level of income and employment in Lesotho”. In this sprit, the Corporation established a processing company – Basotho Fruit and Vegetable Canners (Pty) Ltd. (BFVC) – in 1975 seeking to empower farmers and guaranteeing credible market access for their produce for the canning business. This initiative has been successful for several years but unfortunately had challenges that lead to cessation of operations in 2015. The BFVC was 100% owned by the Corporation and processed the following produce inter alia, peaches, asparagus, beans, tomato, juice and chakalaka for local and export markets. Potential in these markets remains lucrative for Lesotho to exploit and empower local farmers by securing off take agreements for their produce and building credible national agricultural infrastructure with potential to impact farmers positively across Lesotho and improve Lesotho’s food security.  To this end, the LNDC wishes to establish a strategic partnership with the private sector to operationalize the facility in a manner that ensures adequate through-put into the facility, among other things, and support local farmers appropriately. The facility situated at Masianokeng Maseru Lesotho still has appropriate infrastructure and is certified, to continue with processing and canning operations potentially with minor enhancements to accommodate further products that can be secured in Lesotho for processing and canning.

REQUIREMENTS

LNDC hereby invites and encourages possible strategic technical partners to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) in consideration of the requirements below:

  1. The target group is medium to large enterprises with 3 years of profit and minimum 10% growth in annual turnover in last 3 years, with audited financial statements;
  2. The technical partner will be expected to contribute towards equity stake in BFVC or any entity name to be agreed upon for a proportion to be negotiated;
  3. The selected technical partner must demonstrate the ability to finance their equity contribution within a period of 3 months upon signature of partnership;
  4. The selected partner will be expected to guide project preparation processes/enhancements for the completion of the necessary developments and commencement of operations within 6 months upon signature of partnership;
  5. The technical partner will be expected to profitably manage the operations of the facility or to propose a management contract or partner for the operations;
  6. The partner must be able to work closely with LNDC and different stakeholders to contribute significantly to farmers’ empowerment and participation in this partnership;
  7. The technical partner should have at minimum 30 % of a Basotho shareholding component in the tendering company;
  8. The prospective partner must be willing to provide a credible and profiled testimonial on the required capacity to manage the facility at the entity and directors’ level;
  9. The submitting company naturally proffers LNDC with the right to cross-check accuracy of submissions and validate them by virtue of the submission.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Expression of Interest proposals should be accompanied by the following documents:

  • Certified copy of the Certificate of Incorporation/Registration (for companies), certified by the issuing body;
  • Certified copy of a Valid Tax Clearance Certificate, certified by the issuing authority;
  • VAT Registration Number (or exemption thereof);
  • Certified copy (ies) of share certificates for company shareholders;
  • Certified copy(ies) of identity documents of shareholders (ID for Basotho and passports for non- Lesotho citizens);
  • Latest available audited financial statements of the technical partner;
  • Provide KYC documents of directors and shareholders of the entity.

Please note that late submissions of any form will not be accepted.

4.       SELECTION CRITERIA

EOI submissions will be checked for completeness and compliance with the requirements of this invitation based on the following:

  1. Registered member of industry with (local and/or international) authorities as per industry regulations;
  2. The level of equity contribution proposed by the technical partner into the project;
  3. Proven track record of running a large and profitable total mixed ration canning/processing plant by the technical partner;
  4. The financial position of the technical partner;
  5. The suitability of the proposed transaction structure;
  6. The execution timelines;
  7. Basotho participation in the project;
  8. Other social initiatives proposed;
  9. Demonstrate a full understanding of the local and international food processing industry;
  10. Demonstrate proven linkages to support the operations including presence in distribution markets;
  11. Proposed nature of support to local farmers for ensuring minimum through put into the operation.

5.       SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Potential partners should submit the documents in a zip file/folder format to reduce the size of the documents. The folders should be clearly marked, and all documents must be in PDF format. The maximum allowable email size at a time shall be 10MB. Bidders wishing to submit documents with more than the stated email size will be free to split the submission in multiple parts, but not exceeding the reasonable length required.

Chief Executive Officer

Lesotho National Development Corporation

Block A, Level 1

Development House

Kingsway, Maseru

For enquiries; contact: [email protected]  or [email protected] Tel: +266 22312012

  • 19th May 2021 at 12:05 hours.

OR

PDF submissions be sent to [email protected] by 12:00 hours on Wednesday, 19th May 2021 with a copy to [email protected][email protected] and [email protected] . Emails which will be sent after this deadline will not be accepted at all.

  • DISCLAIMER

LNDC shall not be bound to disclose reasons for rejecting or accepting any tender. A debriefing meeting will be considered on request and is not automatic.

  • NOTICE OF RESULTS

Only shortlisted bidders will be invited to prepare RFPs for the second stage of the evaluation.

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