THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has moved to encourage Independent Power Producers (IPP) operating in the country to list their companies on the local bourse and take advantage of the capital generation potential existing in the country with hopes this will eventually bridge the current gap of electricity shortages.
Speaking to NewZimbabwe.com Business Thursday, ZSE chief executive, Justin Bgoni said the equities market regulator is engaging in the drive in fulfilment of its main functions.
“Our mission is to facilitate economic development and at the present moment, we have realised that the country is in short supply of energy. So we believe that the private sector has an important role to play. If you look at other countries especially outside Africa, energy companies go to the stock markets to raise capital.
“We know very big companies that we think should be considering to list with the ZSE like Nyaradzo which are brand names and these may tap into the nation’s capital base,” he said.
Bgoni said that listing of a company on the stock exchange presents a number of advantages such as additional leverage when obtaining loans, easy access to capital, market exposure and free advertising, among others.
“As a listed entity, a company will be able to undertake value enhancing corporate restructuring initiatives such as mergers, acquisitions of disposals more flexibly,” Bgoni said.
In light of unlocking foreign currency capital, the ZSE boss said that he will take advantage of the Memorandum of understanding with Botswana Stock Exchange which will in turn enable the two partners to expose the nations’ equities markets to potential investors who may be willing to inject capital.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president, Tamuka Macheka recently bemoaned the cost impact of the obtaining electricity outages.
“Most companies are running on diesel powered generators and they are spending around 150 litres of fuel per day which translates to 750 litres per week and in a month, the total cost is ZWL$22 756 and this makes our goods uncompetitive due to increased costs,” he said.
