The Securities Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ) has ordered local transfer secretaries to block the transfer of shares registered under the now-defunct Remo Investment Brokers and Interfin Securities in a bid to protect investor interests.
Bernard Mpofu Chief Business Reporter Information at hand shows that SECZ wrote a letter to all transfer securities instructing them to halt the splitting of shares registered under the two brokerage firms without approval from the capital markets regulator.
In the letter dated September 12 2012 copied to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), SECZ chief executive Tafadzwa Chinamo also advised the transfer secretaries to apprise the commission on such transactions that could have taken place in the period following the cancellation of the firms’ operating licences.
“This serves to advise that as part of efforts to protect the firm’s clients, SECZ directs you to stop any transfer or splitting of securities registered under Remo Nominees (and any other account in the name of Remo Investment Brokers) without prior approval from the commission,” reads part of the letter .
“You will be required to advise the commission once you receive any instruction to conduct a split or transfer of shares registered under Remo Nominees. The commission will review such instructions and give consent before the instructions are processed.”
The commission wrote a similar letter to the transfer secretaries instructing them to block the transfer of shares registered under Msasa Nominees and any account under the name Interfin Securities. In June, SECZ ejected two stockbroking firms, Interfin Securities and Remo Investment from operating at ZSE after they were found guilty of breaching trading rules.
The commission also revoked the two firms’ principal brokers, Rufaro Zengeni and Mohmed Mahmed’s licences after it deemed them “unfit” to function as securities dealers.
Early this year, SECZ announced it had registered three transfer secretaries to provide share registry services to over 70 companies on the local bourse.
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The commission licenced the largest transfer secretaries — First Transfer Secretaries, Corpserve and ZB Transfer Secretaries — after the firms met the $150 000 net asset threshold. This means that the companies’ total assets, excluding their liabilities, exceeded the threshold.
