DIVERSIFIED financial services provider Old Mutual Zimbabwe is locked in negotiations with government to have its suspension from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) lifted.
Old Mutual said this week it was aware of the challenges shareholders — exceeding 30 000 — continued to face nearly three years after it was directed to suspend trading, with an option to list of the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX).
VFEX was at the time only an idea, but it has since started trading.
Two other fungible counters, PPC and Seed Co International were also asked to suspend trading back in June 2020.
Fungibility is the right to exchange a product or asset with other individual products or assets of the same kind.
The suspension was due to authorities’ fear that the external share prices were being used to gauge the true value of the depreciating Zimbabwe dollar.
In a statement issued to the Zimbabwe Independent this week, the company said it was still negotiating with the government to end the suspension.
“The Old Mutual Limited share remains suspended from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. Engagements between Old Mutual Limited and authorities are still ongoing, with the view to facilitate shareholders on the Zimbabwe register to transact their shares.
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“We are aware of the hardship that the suspension is causing our shareholders and we will update stakeholders on the outcome of the engagements as soon as we can do so,” the firm noted.
In an earlier interview with The Standard last year, Old Mutual Zimbabwe group chief executive officer, Samuel Matsekete revealed that more than 30 000 shareholders have been affected by the suspension of its listed shares.
He said group was only participating on the main bourse through investing for clients.
Matsekete said despite the suspension of their share price, shareholders could still use the firm’s external listings to gauge what the value of the local shares would be today.
“Perhaps the inconvenience between us as Old Mutual, the authorities, the regulators and everyone involved is that we need to think about whether the longer we take, is there inconvenience perhaps among people who would have wanted to take positions to buy and sell?” Matsekete said.
“Everyone involved is acutely aware of the need to remove that inconvenience. We do know that some people are not in a hurry to trade because it is also an asset that preserves value. But you always want to make sure that everyone wants to hold shares to be able to trade and that they are not losing any opportunity to do so. That’s the bit that we are engaging with authorities.”
As a result of the suspension, Old Mutual shareholders have been prejudiced from the gains of the local bourse’s capitalisation.
At the inaugural Zimbabwe Investment Forum held by Alpha Media Holdings’ Zimbabwe Independent in partnership with PiggyBankAdvisor, an advisory firm last year, ZSE chief executive Justin Bgoni said it had a plan to resolve the impasse.
“We are hoping that in the next month or two, we will be announcing how we can resolve that. We have a plan and we will be announcing the plan, hopefully very soon, but we have a plan. There is a way forward that we have in mind. I mean, we were always embarrassed about that because it has been a long time, but we have a plan now,” he said.
