ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange (ZSE) chief executive Justin Bgoni says he is confident that the bourse will see new listings this year despite a number of companies jumping ship to the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX).
The companies that have so far migrated from the ZSE to the forex-denominated VFEX include Padenga Holdings Limited, Simbisa Brands Limited, Seed Co, Caledonia Mining Corporation, Bindura Nickel Corporation Limited, Innscor and National Foods.
African Sun and Getbucks also got the nod from their shareholders to delist from ZSE and list on VFEX.
The new wave has, however, become a cause of concern with market watchers questioning the future of ZSE as companies continue to delist without any new listings coming on board.
But Bgoni told NewsDay Business that the future of ZSE is bright as there are companies which are looking to list on the bourse.
“We are confident that we will see new listings on ZSE this year and that ZSE will remain a viable and vibrant exchange,” he said
Bgoni added that there were no laws that limited or governed the number of counters that could delist from ZSE and expressed confidence that both bourses would start growing.
“There is no law that governs [migration to VFEX] and in our opinion there is no need. The migration has stabilised now and we expect both exchanges to start growing. We are happy and comfortable that there is still strong interest on ZSE and the amounts are within historical averages,” he said.
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Bgoni said VFEX had become one of the avenues through which foreign investors could remit their money.
“Foreign investors are able to leave through the willing buyer and willing seller market on ZSE and directly on VFEX. The repatriation process remains a challenge and the VFEX, willing buyer and willing seller market and the RBZ auction will help,” he said.
Besides being a foreign currency-denominated bourse, VFEX has been offering a number of incentives which have in turn attracted listings.
As a result of the flood of listings, the market capitalisation for VFEX reached US$1 billion on February 27.
VFEX, which began trading in October 2020, grappled with a listing drought until late last year.
However, in an interview last year with our sister paper Standard, Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim) CEO Anymore Taruvinga expressed concern over the listing drought on ZSE with Tigere Real Investment Trust being the first counter to list on the ZSE last year since that of Getbucks in 2016.
“We feel we need to grow our IPO (initial public offerings). I think the Tigere listing will be the first one since 2016,” he said. “The last one was Getbucks. It is not good for capital markets to spend such a long time without having IPOs coming onto the market.”
