POSB Bank raved up its listing plans on Tuesday, with chairperson Israel Ndlovu disclosing for the first time that the mass market lender was pursuing a listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE).
The country has two operating bourses, the old ZSE and the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), which began trading last year.
However, there has been a pronounced influx to the waterfall since the VFEX came on line in October, exclusively trading in foreign currency.
The ZSE has been hit by a protracted listing drought.
In a commentary to the bank’s results for the half-year ended June 30, 2021, Ndlovu gave his first biggest indication yet of how serious POSB was in pursuing a listing, saying an Initial Public Offering (IPO) was also on the way.
The IPO will be part of POSB’s plan to meet a US$20 million minimum capital required by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe by the end of this year.
“The liquidity ratio of the bank was maintained well above the regulatory minimum of 30% closing the period under review at 57%,” he said. “With the total shareholders’ equity at ZW$1,55 billion (about US$18,6 million) as at 30 June 2021, the bank remains well capitalised and is on course to meet the Tier 2 capital threshold of US$20 million … through organic growth, private placement and initial public offer.”
The listing is part of a solid plan announced last month that will be twinned by POSB’s partial privatisation.
The POSB boss did not disclose at the time which domestic bourse one of Zimbabwe’s biggest lenders was targeting.
However, giving an update of the partial privatisation process, Ndlovu said: “The partial privatisation process, which started in 2018 has significantly progressed with the consultants who were appointed to provide transactional advisory services having submitted the initial due diligence and valuation reports to the technical committee for consideration by the shareholders.
“It is anticipated that the private placement process and/or the listing of the bank on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange will be finalised before the end of the year 2021.”
POSB overturned a ZW$138,29 million (about US$1,6 million) profits during the half year ended June 30, 2020, to post a ZW$60,84 (about US$700 000) million profit during the review period.
