The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange can't retain the companies it has. That tells you everything about why Varun Beverages and Trade Kings aren't joining.
HARARE, May 18 (NewsDay Live) — On May 13, President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially commissioned Varun Beverages' new Cheetos manufacturing plant in Harare, the latest in a series of investments that have taken the Indian company from a single production line eight years ago to six lines producing approximately 120 million bottles per month. RJ Corporation Group Chairman Ravi Jaipuria attended the ceremony alongside cabinet ministers. The company is expanding. It is deepening roots in Zimbabwe. It is not, and likely will not be, listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange.
Neither will Trade Kings, the 100% Zambian-owned FMCG group widely considered the largest of its kind in Zambia and among the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Both companies operate significant manufacturing assets in Zimbabwe. Both are precisely the kind of anchor listings that a young exchange needs to build credibility. The question of why they stay away is not really about them.
It is about the VFEX.
By Q1 2025, the VFEX's total traded value was US$58.5 million, with foreign participation of just 3.3 percent. The foreign investors that the dollar-denominated bourse was supposed to attract had not arrived in meaningful numbers. For the full year 2025, total traded value reached US$111 million. Safaricom, for comparison, turns over that figure in roughly two months.
The numbers tell part of the story. The delistings tell the rest. National Foods, the maker of Gloria and Red Seal flour, migrated to the VFEX from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in December 2022, expecting the dollar-denominated board to improve its regional profile and attract offshore capital. It left in January 2025. In its delisting circular, the board stated plainly that "maintaining the VFEX listing offers limited benefits, particularly given the low liquidity and restricted trading environment." African Sun followed, announcing in February 2026 that it was departing after barely three years, citing thin liquidity and compliance costs that outweighed the benefits of a USD listing. Its chairman had noted the market price consistently failed to reflect the company's true value.
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For Varun Beverages, the structural argument against a VFEX listing is straightforward. The company is already publicly traded on India's National Stock Exchange, carries a market capitalisation above US$15 billion, and reported trailing revenue of approximately US$2.4 billion as of end-2025. Its Zimbabwe operations run through a subsidiary. A listing of that subsidiary on the VFEX would require disclosure obligations, compliance costs, and shareholder management in a market where a full year of trading generates less than what Safaricom turns over in weeks. The parent company's investors in Mumbai do not need a VFEX ticker to value Zimbabwe exposure.
Trade Kings presents a different but equally decisive calculus. The group is one of the largest privately owned manufacturers in Southern Africa, with world-class manufacturing facilities in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Private ownership confers what public markets systematically remove: freedom from quarterly disclosure cycles, protection of related-party arrangements, and full operational control without the scrutiny that comes with a free float.
The VFEX does offer genuine incentives, including USD settlement and exemptions from capital gains and withholding taxes on dividends. Its market capitalisation grew 34 percent in 2025, and new listings including Pfuma REIT have added breadth. But depth remains the problem. Until the exchange can demonstrate that a listing produces real price discovery and genuine capital access, not just a USD denomination of an illiquid share, companies with options will keep exercising them elsewhere. The VFEX's most pressing task is not convincing Varun Beverages or Trade Kings to list. It is convincing the companies it already has to stay.