VFEX listings gather momentum
LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) expects a listing galore of real estate investment trusts, exchange traded funds and equities following regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe.
Most companies seem to be joining the foreign currency-only exchange bourse following huge losses that investors and shareholders have incurred on the local currency bourse exchange with Nedbank Zimbabwe which is joining the bourse on November 18, 2022, being the latest listing.
Padenga and Bindura Nickel Corporation, Seed Co International and Caledonia have joined the VFEX with Simbisa and National Foods expected to join the bourse in the near future.
VFEX chief executive officer Justin Bgoni told Business Times that the stakeholder consultations being done by VFEX have yielded a strong pipeline for the bourse.
“The REITs [real estate investment trusts] listings are still a work in progress for the issuers who have shown interest while the anticipated ETF listing has been given approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZ) and just awaiting the final dates of listing on VFEX with additional ETFs also in the pipeline,” Bgoni said.
“For the equities, we are anticipating a listing before the end of the year, and we have an upcoming listing of the Nedbank Zimbabwe Depository Receipts scheduled for November 2022,” Bgoni said.
He said three REITS listings, another ETF and one or two equities this year are still a huge possibility as most of the regulatory approvals have been met.
Bgoni said the Nedbank Depository Receipts listing would attract more companies to list on the dollar-denominated bourse.
“The addition of issuers and new securities on VFEX, is indeed a confidence booster to many potential companies that want to list on VFEX, together with the favourable incentives available on VFEX for issuers,” Bgoni said.
The bourse was working with the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Mines on the commodity exchange which will trade minerals, the VFEX boss said.
“We have completed the first two phases mainly consultations with stakeholders such as small-scale miners, large-scale miners as well as buyers and benchmarking with other commodity exchanges in Dubai, Nigeria and South Africa
“We are now in the final phase of drafting the legislation. In this regard we are working with MMCZ, the Ministry of Mines
, the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General’s Office,” Bgoni said.
Last year, the VFEX signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) as the foreign currency-denominated bourse eyes commodities trading.
Under the agreement, the DGCX will extend technical support, knowledge and skills to VFEX, with the ultimate aim of establishing an international commodities exchange in Zimbabwe.
VFEX will seek support from the DGCX in framing a clearing and settlement commodities exchange framework.
The collaboration will also pave the way for possible investments by DGCX into the VFEX Commodities Exchange.
“VFEX got a lot of help from DGCX in terms of benchmarking. We will continue engaging them as agreed between both parties,” Bgoni said.
