Equity firm contemplates ZSE delisting, as Zimdollar free-fall rages on

Private equity firm, BridgeFort Capital Limited (BCL) is considering delisting from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) after losing a staggering US$36,05 million of its listed value, causing investee companies to reject its shares.

At the beginning of the year, BCL’s listed class A and B shares were valued at US$36,04 million and US$50 000, respectively, but have since fallen to a valuation of just US$30 000 and US$10 000 as of Wednesday.

The massive drop is due to the Zimdollar losing over 895% of its value during the period to reach US$1:$6 926,57 as of Wednesday.

In its annual report for the financial year ended December 31, 2022, BCL chief executive officer Vernon Lapham said the company envisaged moving to the forex only Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) after a ZSE delisting.

“The shareholders of targeted investee companies are reluctant to conclude transactions for ZWL listed shares and hence we envisage having to move the listings to the VFEX at the time we manage to conclude a transaction,” he said, in BCL’s 2022 annual report released yesterday.

The poor share price performance caused BCL to experience negative income of $1,48 billion causing an overall loss of $1,44 billion to the company last year.

The loss widened from a $2,24 million experienced in 2021.

In terms of liquidity, the overall poor performance led BCL to remain in an illiquid position having only 51 cents to every dollar of debt as of December 31, 2022. Newsday