Rwanda’s biggest local investment company, Crystal Ventures Ltd, is overhauling its operations to improve the efficiency of its businesses.

In addition to recent changes in top management, including the appointment of a new board chairman and chief executive officer, the company, which is valued at approximately $500 million and is owned by the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), is effecting changes in its subsidiaries.

This year, youthful Jack Kayonga was appointed to replace Prof Nshuti Manasseh as the board chairman, signalling the changing face of a business that has been fighting allegations that it disproportionately benefits from lucrative government contracts.

The company has also recruited the country’s former national budget chief, Elias Baingana, as its new chief executive officer, reaffirming its quest to institute corporate governance structures.

He is replacing John Bosco Birungi. Mr Kayonga’s appointment is widely seen as an attempt to streamline the company’s operations as it strives to operate as a competitive private venture capital fund.

“The top management of Crystal Ventures demands results and has zero-tolerance for under-performance. These changes are intended to ensure that the company continues to perform well because even as they look for strategic partnerships elsewhere, they want to ensure that the company is properly managed,” said a source who is close to the RFP leadership.

“Crystal Ventures is perceived to be getting favours from the government because it is affiliated to the ruling party, but the fact is its management is under a lot of pressure to perform,” he added.

Specifically, the RPF will be seeking to tap into Mr Kayonga’s experience as an investment banker as he is credited with turning around the country’s development bank —Rwanda Development Bank (BRD) — where he served as the chief executive officer for four years from 2009.

During his tenure, he oversaw major reforms at the bank, including instituting corporate governance structures that saw it being named by the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (ADFI) as the third best-managed development bank in Africa.

While change in management has been publicly linked to poor financial management in some of the companies, Crystal Ventures describes the changes as routine, saying the managers affected had served their term in office.

“But is it also linked to improving efficiency — we are looking for value,” Mr Kayonga told The EastAfrican.

The group is in the advanced stages of selling some of its companies, including Inyange Industries, which manufactures beverages and dairy products.
However, details of the deal are yet to be made public.

Crystal Ventures is also expected to float shares of some of its companies — including MTN Rwanda, Ruliba Clays Ltd, Rwanda’s sole brick and tile making company, as well as East African Granite Industries, the largest granite factory in Rwanda — on the Rwanda Stock Exchange.

Offloading MTN shares

The company is believed to have approached the Capital Markets Authority to sell its 20 per cent stake in MTN Rwanda through an initial public offering, though sources say its management is also still locked in negotiations with other potential investors.

READ: Crystal Ventures plans to sell 20 per cent stake in MTN Rwanda

It has however, remained tight-lipped lipped about the deals and how much it intends to raise, saying disclosing such information would jeopardise negotiations.

But Mr Kayonga said as an investment fund, the company is exiting some of its businesses for strategic reasons.

“We do not have all the expertise across the different sectors where we have invested,” he said.

The company is targeting new sectors in the economy for investment, including energy and transport.

“It is not always about the sector but the size of the investment.

Some sectors may require huge investments, and we think we can leverage our balance sheet to invest in these sectors,” Mr Kayonga said.