VFEX courts foreign investors

 RYAN CHIGOCHE

The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) is targeting foreign investors to participate as it seeks to grow the United States dollar denominated  bourse, CEO Justin Bgoni has said.

The bourse, which debuted in 2020, has four listed counters—Seed Co International, Padenga, Caledonia and Bindura.

“We appreciate the continuous support from the Government of Zimbabwe and market participants as we work towards increasing listings, products and participation of foreign investors on VFEX,” Bgoni said.

He said the bourse was also working to deepen the market and would establish a commodities exchange and targeting new listings.

“VFEX is working hard to increase the listings. There is a strong pipeline in the mining sector, financial services and related government institutions,” Bgoni said.

In  the first quarter of this year, VFEX registered 351 trades, compared to  two trades in the prior comparable period.

Throughout the whole of 2021 the bourse oversaw only nine deals.

The overall VFEX market capitalisation stood at US$253.6m in March this year.

The Government has introduced several incentives to lure investors on the VFEX, including slashing withdrawal tax on dividends for foreign investors by half to 5% from 10% and tax breaks.

Also, trades on the VFEX do not attract capital gains tax on the disposal of listed securities.