Halogen Holdings sold out of its remaining shares in AIM-listed Central African Gold last year

while the cash flow is not yet on tap in the Heartstone Inn pub business, Halogen shareholders can at least enjoy a belated celebration of the fact that their company sold out of its remaining shares in AIM-listed Central African Gold last year.

Indeed, the "start-up" losses suffered in pub business would have paled by comparison to the losses Halogen would have suffered had it clung to its remaining shares in Central African Gold.

Readers may remember Halogen's former corporate guise was as Falcon Investment Holdings, which held Zimbabwean gold mines as its main assets.

In early 2007 Halogen sold its interests in two Zimbabwe gold mining companies (Falgold and Olympus) to Central African Gold for gross sale proceeds of $4.55m - or about R30m.

The settlement saw Halogen receive cash of almost $3m (R22m) and 7.2m Central African Gold shares (which Halogen agreed not to sell for at least six months).

The decision to sell the gold mining interests followed the Zimbabwean government's indigenisation programme, which proposed that state and indigenous shareholders should be given a 51% stake in foreign mining companies. more