Business

HARARE – Equities market regulator, Securities Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim), has condemned companies’ share buybacks arguing the schemes were exacerbating the liquidity crisis and “keeping the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) obscure”. Tafadzwa Chinamo, SecZim chief executive, said share buybacks were common and ideal in advanced markets where there are funds whose overriding objective is to…

HARARE – Foreign investors should accept and deal with Zimbabwe’s indigenisation policy, financial advisory firm Lynton Edwards Stockbrokers (Les) says. Zimbabwe is implementing an empowerment policy — compelling foreign-owned firms to cede 51 percent shareholding to black locals — that recently re-elected President Robert Mugabe vowed to aggressively pursue during his seventh term in office….

HARARE – Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed financial services group FBC Holdings (FBCH) has acquired more than 2 000 hectares of prime land in Harare earmarked for the construction of residential properties. The group said it expects the move to ease housing shortages in the country, exacerbated by increasing rural-to-urban migration. According to the National Housing ministry,…

HARARE – South Africa-based miner DRDGold Limited (DRDGold) says it is in negotiations with potential buyers of its Zimbabwean assets. Niël Pretorius, the group’s chief executive, said the company — which had considered various options, such as partnerships and joint ventures or even the unbundling and development of a new mining firm — is disposing…

HARARE – Listed asbestos manufacturer Turnall Holdings Limited (Turnall) says its sales were sluggish in the half year to June 2013 due to uncertainty created by the July 31 elections. The group’s managing director John Jere said total sales volumes went up by a marginal 7,8 percent to 33 071 tonnes during the period under…

JOHANNESBURG – Impala Platinum (Implats), an 87 percent-shareholder in Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Limited (Zimplats), may pass on the final dividend when it announces its year-end results, scheduled for August 29 ? a development that would restrict returns to shareholders at a very modest 35c/share versus the R1,95/share payout in the previous financial year. Already, it’s…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s equities market on Wednesday ended its losing streak after the key industrial index gained 0,21 percent to close at 183,14 points ahead of President Robert Mugabe’s inauguration. The bourse had traded in the red for two consecutive weeks following Mugabe’s victory in the July 31 poll. The mining index was unchanged at…

HARARE – Diversified financial services group FBC Holdings Limited (FBCH) says it is negotiating multi-million dollar offshore credit lines to help ease the prevailing liquidity challenges. John Mushayavanhu, FBCH’s chief executive, yesterday said the group’s new Mauritian-based shareholder ShoreCap II Limited (ShoreCap) was facilitating the transactions. “We have been talking to potential clients who are…

HARARE – Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) has suspended its retrenchment exercise after coming out of the woods, posting a $105 000 profit after tax in the half year to June 2013 from a $3,2 million loss incurred in prior comparable period. The listed hotelier last year lay off 20 percent of its 1 200 workers…

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s year-on-year inflation rate shed 0,62 percentage points to settle at 1,25 percent in July. Statistics released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) revealed that on a month-on-month basis, inflation dropped to -0,38 percent from -0,13 percent in June. The southern Africa country’ s inflation, once regarded as the highest in the…