Harare - Pick n Pay’s Zimbabwean diversified conglomerate partner Meikles rose 7.58 percent to 10.22 cents on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) on Wednesday after the company announced that it would delist from the bourse.
Meikles advised its shareholders that it was engaged in discussions that related to a possible offer to minorities and the subsequent delisting from the Harare-based bourse.
The planned delisting of Meikles will see the struggling southern African country lose one of the biggest conglomerates in the country.
Meikles runs hotels and an agro-processing unit that is involved in tea processing and macadamia farming. The company has also ventured into mining. It was founded by Thomas Meikles in 1892 with the flagship Meikles Hotel in Victoria Falls before another hotel was opened in Harare.
“Gains in Econet and Meikles helped the equities market closed positive today. By the close of trading the main Industrials Index was up 0.49 percent to 135.78 points,” said analysts at Lynton Edwards Stockbrokers in a market report.
The delisting plans come after Meikles chairperson John Moxon threatened in 2015 that it would consider delisting.
Suspension
Moxon also warned at the time that plans to separately list the supermarkets division had been jeopardised following its temporary suspension from the stock exchange.
Moxon said “the manner” in which the ZSE suspended Meikles from trading was implemented unprocedurally.
The company even approached the Zimbabwean courts to sue for $150 million (R1.95 billion) following the suspension allegedly for misrepresenting facts in its financials for the year.
The suspension, however, was later lifted after clarification - on the amount it was owed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe - was provided.
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The ZSE has recently also had disagreements with Econet Wireless, the biggest telecom in Zimbabwe and one of the top favourites for foreign investors after it proceeded with an offshore rights issue to raise capital to service a maturing debt facility.
The Zimbabwean bourse charged that the offshore capital raise disadvantaged minority and resident shareholders, but Econet made a deal with the central bank to allow local shareholders to participate through depositing funds into a local bank.
“The ZSE is going to lose Meikles and although we have not been privy to the actual reason, the fact that Meikles threatened to delist is sure to raise opinion against the stock exchange and how it handles issues.
“The other issue has been the debacle with Econet which says it has obtained all the required regulatory approvals despite the ZSE saying it had erred and asked it to postpone the capital raising programme,” a market analyst said.