Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party plans to introduce a law that will force foreign-owned companies to allocate a majority stake to black Zimbabweans.

Any foreign-owned company worth more than $500,000 will be required to transfer 51 percent ownership to black Zimbabweans within 60 days, according to a draft law published yesterday in the capital, Harare, that seeks to amend and enforce the Indigenization and Empowerment Act, passed by parliament in 2007.

“Any business that within the 60-day period fails to enter into a transaction that results in 51 percent, or a controlling interest, as the case may be, being held by indigenous Zimbabweans shall within the next 30 days submit a proposal within the next six months from the date of publication of these regulations on how it intends to achieve compliance with the Act,” the proposed regulations state.

Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a member of the Movement for Democratic Change party in the power-sharing national government, said he was unaware of the government proposal.

“I have not seen that law and certainly it has not been discussed in Cabinet so it will be very difficult to comment on something that is speculative,” Biti said in an interview today in Maputo, the Mozambican capital. Zimbabwe’s Youth and Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, who drafted the proposed regulations, didn’t answer calls to his office when Bloomberg sought comment today.

The MDC and Zanu-PF on Feb. 13 agreed to form a power- sharing government to end a decade-long political and economic crisis that has slashed living standards. The two parties remain at loggerheads over issues including human rights, farm invasions and the appointment of senior government officials.

“The signal the proposed law sends to investors and businesses already in Zimbabwe is extremely negative,” Harare- based economist John Robertson said in a phone interview.

Bloomberg News was told there was no one available to comment on the proposed regulations when it called the local units of Barclays Bank Plc and Standard Chartered Plc.

Foreign-owned mining companies are subject to a separate indigenization law that has yet to be ratified.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Latham in Durban at blatham@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 05:20 EST