Trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange will resume on Monday, without three major foreign companies that have listings on foreign bourses as the Finance ministry engages in further consultations on the best way forward regarding their re-listing under suitable rules
Zimbabwe’s Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said an investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit revealed a link between the movement in prices of three dual-listed stocks and the parallel market rate of the Zimbabwe dollar; namely Old Mutual, Pretoria Portland Cement and SeedCo International.
Ncube said investors used these stock prices as a proxy exchange rate implied by its prices on foreign bourses such as the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Old Mutual, the 175-year-old SA insurer, is the largest company by market value listed on the ZSE.
Old Mutual and Seed International said in separate e-mailed statements that they would comply with an order issued by finance minister Mthuli Ncube that they suspend trading “pending finalization of the modalities for their resumption to trade.”
The government wants to transfer the three companies’ listings onto a foreign-currency denominated exchange in the town of Victoria Falls, planned for opening later in 2020.
The three stocks account for a combined 4.9% member weighting in Harare’s main industrial index in Harare.
