Barbican Holdings CEO Mthuli Ncube has spoken to the Zimbabwe Independent about his company's proposed purchase of Zimbabwe Platinum Mines stock.

Describing the company as 'a very good investment especially during these days of economic uncertainty', he elaborated on his plans:

'Our bid is between zero to 40 per cent. If minority shareholders approve of the offer we will get as much as 40 per cent of the stake in Zimplats. If however they do not agree to the full bid we could get as low as 0 per cent.'

The Barbican bid is in direct competition with the 4.08 Australian dollars per share offered by PGMs giant Impala Platinum, which already has a 55.15 per cent stake in Zimplats:

'We believe it should be in the region of about five Australian dollars', Mr Ncube said.

'Our offer is going through within the next few days as per regulations. We wrote to the management telling them of our intention and now we will be following up with the actual documentation.'

Zimplats sources, though welcoming the hostile bid, has said that it requires more details of how Barbican would fund the offer.

Mr Ncube confirmed that his company had been 'asked to provide details of how we would raise the required US130 million', but no details have yet been publicly issued.