Zim execs, firms head to London for investment conference

SEVERAL Zimbabwean companies and business executives from home and the diaspora will converge in London, United Kingdom next week for a capital markets conference to mobilise private capital to finance key projects.

The country, which currently lags behinds regional peers in attracting private capital, has committed to undertake a raft of reforms aimed at improving the investment climate for both domestic and foreign investors.

The event, set for 20-21 April, will be held at 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.

Anymore Taruvinga, the Securities and Exchanges Commission of Zimbabwe chief executive

On the 20th of April, there will be a function at the London Stock Exchange – which has a market capitalisation of US$$3.57 trillion – at 10 Paternoster Sq., London EC4M 7LS.

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

The move by listed companies from the ZSE to the 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 considerable momentum this past quarter with the announcement that 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 Brands and National Foods moved in December last year. Axia and Innscor have also migrated to the VFEX as more companies hint at migrating to the platform in order to preserve capital.

Diaspora investment groups that will participate at the conference include the 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.

Bard Santner Markets chief executive 

The conference will be addressed by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube and 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 overseas.

It 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 the headline sponsor 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 is 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.

It provides capital raising, advisory services, and research services for international funds, institutional investors and private investors investing in Africa.

The aim of the event is to showcase the local capital market to international investors, including the diaspora investing community to mobilise capital.

Anymore Taruvinga, the Securities and Exchanges Commission of Zimbabwe chief executive said the investment conference would present enormous opportunities for Zimbabwe.

“So our interest as the capital markets regulator is obviously to ensure that the Zimbabwean story is told, how are capital markets are open for foreign investment including investment by our community in the diaspora,” Taruvinga said.

“But I think we have it upon ourselves to ensure that some of those funds are channelled towards investments. From investments that is where our real sectors or productive sectors can then draw financing to expand operations or to invest further into processing and value addition which augur well for our economy and help us to achieve our Vision 2030 of an upper middle-income economy. The second other aspect is that we might also have potential entrepreneurs—both foreigners and from our diaspora community—that may be interested in actually setting up shop in Zimbabwe—either as a stockbroker or as a financial advisor, or asset manager.

They may also want to know what it takes to participate in that space, so we as a regulator are going there to ensure that potential entrepreneurs are well informed and are assured that it’s a process that really very easy and us as a regulator will be there to support them in whatever entrepreneurial activity that they may want to undertake. But basically, we want to support our capital markets, we want to market our capital markets, we want to ensure that there are incremental investments in our capital markets from the diaspora as well as from the foreign investors.”

The Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (Zida), the country’s investment promotion agency will be represented by chief Executive Tafadzwa Chinamo, chief investment promotion officer Silibaziso Chizwina and chief legal officer Theresa Muchinguri.

Local capital markets are critical to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and growth.

The World Bank Group says local capital markets as critical to accelerating the sustainable economic growth needed to broaden prosperity and reduce poverty. Deeper, dynamic and more efficient equity and debt markets can be more effective in helping to mobilise domestic savings and complement traditional bank lending by fostering risk-taking and long-term investments.

Further, capital markets can protect economies from volatile fluctuations in capital flows and reduce dependency on foreign debt. They also promote efficient governance and transparency, while providing diversified sources of investment.

For Zimbabwe to stimulate economic growth and development, it requires long-term funding, hence capital market provides an avenue for mobilisation and utilisation of long-term funds for development. This is referred to as the long-term end of the financial system.

So the capital market, as an organised market mechanism for effective and efficient transfer of money capital or financial resources from the investing class to the entrepreneur class in the private and public sectors of the economy, is what the country needs to ensure economic recovery and growth.

According to the World Bank, capital markets can accelerate economic growth by providing a boost to domestic savings and increasing the quantity and quality of investment.

The conference will gather key economic players such as government officials and policymakers, high-profile corporate leaders, project developers, investors, and entrepreneurs while providing a unique platform to gain strategic knowledge about Zimbabwe’s investment opportunities and business networking.