Zimbabwean companies descend on the London Stock Exchange

Zimbabwean companies and corporate executives from home and in the diaspora will tomorrow descend on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) - one of the world's biggest bourses in the world with a market capitalisation of US$3.6 trillion - for a major capital markets investment conference in the British capital to mobilise private capital to finance domestic development.

The event, set for 20-21 April, will be held at the LSE tomorrow before moving to the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, a conference facility located in the City of Westminster, London, close to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Central Hall Westminster and Parliament Square on Friday.

Tomorrow there will be a function at the LSE at 10 Paternoster Sq., London EC4M 7LS.

Local companies attending include Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC, CBZ Holdings, Nyaradzo group and Karo Mining Holdings.

Internationally, there will be the British International Investment and the UK government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Other entities which will be there include the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), Victoria Falls Stock (VFEX), Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe, the regulatory body for securities and capital markets in the country, Insurance and Pensions Commission, a statutory body established to regulate the insurance and pensions industry, Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency, that is responsible for promoting and facilitating local and foreign investment, and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The move by listed companies from the ZSE to VFEX, which is wholly dollar-indexed and offers some tax incentives (by contrast the ZSE has in recent times been loaded with various, often confusing and detrimental transaction taxes), has gained  momentum this past quarter with the announcement the former Innscor group of companies will seek to delist from the ZSE and relist on the VFEX in hard currency.

Padenga took advantage of tax incentives to move in 2021, Simbisa and National Foods moved in December last year, while Axia and Innscor itself will likely join them over the coming months.

More companies will be joining them too.

Diaspora investment groups which will participate at the conference include Zim-UK Business Chamber, Zimbabwe Diaspora Nation-Building Initiative, Zimbabwe Diaspora Investment Group, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (UK chapter), Qoki Zindlovukazi Community Group, ZimThrive, Martketseer, CMG media group, Qoki and Zimbabwe Diaspora Investment Group, among others.

Zimbabwe's Finance minister Mthuli Ncube will deliver a key note address.

Key players in the primary capital markets, corporate leaders, financial institutions and investment banks executives, and public accounting firms heads, as well as secondary market players such as fund managers and stockbrokers from Zimbabwe and elsewhere will also attend.

The conference is organised and partly funded by Financial Markets Indaba and Bard Santner Markets Inc, among other players.

The conference is facilitated by the Zimbabwean embassy in the UK led by ambassador Christian Katsande.

Bard Santner Markets Inc is also one of the sponsors of the conference whose theme is "The role capital markets for sustainable growth of the economy: Creating and developing efficient local capital markets".

Financial Markets Indaba, which put together a series of investment conferences convened under Indaba Africa, an emergent research network of interactive conferences that seeks to profile the investment potential of Africa, also played in a role.