By Jabulani Simplisio Chibaya
HARARE – OLD Mutual Limited, the pan-African financial services group listed across five African exchanges, has announced plans to migrate its secondary listing in Zimbabwe from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) to the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX). The move is designed to resolve a trading suspension that has locked in Old Mutual’s Zimbabwean shareholders since June 2020, and it lands at a moment when the VFEX has decisively overtaken its older domestic rival as the country’s most valuable exchange.
Background: A Suspension That Outlasted Its Own Rationale
Old Mutual shares have traded on the ZSE for decades as part of the group’s multi-market listing structure, which also spans the JSE (its primary listing), the London Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchange, and the Malawi Stock Exchange. That changed in June 2020, when the Government of Zimbabwe suspended ZSE trading altogether in response to concerns about an implied exchange rate and broader currency instability. Trading on the exchange resumed two months later, in August 2020, but Old Mutual was one of the counters that remained frozen — through no fault of its own, as the company is at pains to note.
For nearly six years, Old Mutual’s Zimbabwean shareholders — including pension funds, insurance portfolios, and individual investors — have effectively been unable to buy or sell the shares on the local market. Old Mutual says it has spent the intervening period engaging the Government of Zimbabwe and regulatory and exchange stakeholders, testing various trading mechanisms and alternative solutions to restore liquidity for that shareholder base.
Why VFEX and Why Now
The Board’s rationale rests heavily on how far VFEX has matured since its 2020 launch as a niche, dollar-denominated bourse. Several figures underpin that case:
– Average annual turnover per issuer on VFEX rose from US$0.3 million in 2021 to US$7.0 million in 2025, and has outpaced the ZSE’s per-issuer average over the last two years.
– VFEX’s total annual turnover has grown from roughly US$0.6 million in 2021 to US$111.1 million in 2025, and is expected to match or exceed the ZSE’s 2025 turnover of US$196.1 million within two years.
– Average trading volume per issuer has jumped from 1.3 million securities in 2021 to 96.1 million in 2025 — now ahead of the ZSE’s per-issuer average of 67.7 million.
– The exchange has grown from a single counter in 2020 to 19 listed instruments today, 15 of them ordinary equities.
Independent market data corroborates — and now exceeds — the trajectory the Board describes. VFEX’s market capitalisation first overtook the 132-year-old ZSE in April 2026, driven substantially by the US$1 billion listing of Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet InfraCo, and stood at roughly US$3.72 billion by early June 2026. According to VFEX’s own market data, that figure has since climbed further: as of 9 July 2026, the exchange’s market capitalisation stood at US$4.06 billion, with the VFEX All Share Index at 258.32. On that single trading day, the exchange recorded turnover of US$1,183,836.74 across 1,789,566 shares and 179 trades — a useful illustration of the day-to-day liquidity now on offer to a counter the size of Old Mutual. Analysts have described the exchange’s rise as a structural reordering of Zimbabwe’s capital markets, with a wave of blue-chip counters — including Padenga, Simbisa Brands, National Foods, Innscor Africa and Econet Wireless itself — having already migrated from the ZSE to VFEX in what local commentators call the “Great Trek.” Old Mutual’s move places it in that same current, rather than against it.
Procedurally, the ZSE and VFEX have tried to smooth the path for companies like Old Mutual: the two exchanges, with regulatory backing, have issued Joint Practice Notes (the first in July 2022, a second in April 2026) intended to reduce the administrative burden of switching platforms.
What Changes for Shareholders — and What Doesn’t
The most immediate benefit is the simplest: the restoration of the ability to trade. Shareholders regain the freedom either to sell their shares or to continue holding them, collecting dividends, participating in corporate actions, and retaining exposure to Old Mutual’s market value — none of which has been meaningfully possible on the ZSE since 2020.
A second, structural benefit is currency. VFEX is a fully US dollar-denominated exchange — trading, settlement, and dividends are all conducted in USD — which materially reduces the currency risk that has dogged ZSE-listed instruments. For pension funds and long-term institutional holders in particular, that currency certainty is arguably as important as the resumption of trading itself, since it removes a source of valuation volatility that has nothing to do with Old Mutual’s underlying business performance.
There are also tax considerations: trading on VFEX currently carries certain tax benefits relative to the ZSE, though Old Mutual is careful to direct shareholders to their own tax advisors rather than generalising this point.
Mechanically, little changes for the trading experience itself. VFEX operates a T+2 settlement cycle, mirrors the ZSE’s trading mechanics fairly closely, and is open daily from 09:30 to 13:00 Zimbabwean time. It runs on a custodial model, meaning shareholders will need to register through authorised VFEX brokers, custodians, or the VFEX Direct platform to transact.
Importantly, Old Mutual stresses that the migration will not touch the underlying business: its operations and management, including those conducted through Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited, remain unaffected. This is a market-access fix, not a corporate restructuring.
Notes for Institutional and Retail Investors
Old Mutual has flagged several risk factors investors should weigh before the migration completes:
Price discovery will be genuinely market-driven: The opening price on VFEX will be set independently through the exchange’s own bid/offer matching process, without the usual VFEX price limits applying on day one. Normal daily trading limits — capped at 20% movement from the prior close — only kick in from the second day of trading. That first session could therefore see a wider-than-usual price swing as the market finds its level.
No guaranteed price correlation: Old Mutual is explicit that it cannot guarantee any relationship between the VFEX trading price and either the last traded ZSE price or Old Mutual’s current JSE price (its primary listing) or prices on any other exchange where it trades.
Liquidity is not guaranteed: Despite VFEX’s growth, Old Mutual cannot promise sufficient liquidity for all shareholders to trade at their desired volumes or prices.
Regulatory landscape risk: Zimbabwe’s regulatory and legal framework could evolve, and Old Mutual cannot predict the effect of future changes.
Shareholders — both institutional and retail — are advised to consult their brokers, custodians, legal advisors, or tax professionals before acting.
Approvals and Next Steps
The migration still requires VFEX to approve Old Mutual’s listing application, along with associated dispensations under the Joint Practice Notes. If approved, Old Mutual will not need to publish a pre-listing statement, nor will it need shareholder approval to delist from the ZSE and list on VFEX — a reflection of the streamlined, secondary-listing nature of the transaction. Old Mutual says it will announce a firm start date once all conditions are met.
What It Adds to the Zimbabwe Strategy
For Old Mutual, the migration is less an offensive strategic play than a long-overdue repair: it restores a functioning market for a shareholder base that has been effectively locked out of trading for six years, on an exchange that has since demonstrated it can support meaningful turnover and liquidity in hard currency. With VFEX now the country’s largest bourse by market capitalisation and continuing to attract Zimbabwe’s most liquid counters, aligning Old Mutual’s Zimbabwean listing with that platform is as much about following where liquidity and institutional trust have already moved as it is about pioneering anything new. The economic and operational substance of Old Mutual’s business in Zimbabwe is unchanged; what changes is simply that its shareholders there can, once again, act on their investment.
Jabulani Simplisio Chibaya is a Data and AI Consultant specializing in data science, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cryptocurrency innovation. A seasoned conference speaker, he also writes on the intersection of technology, regulation, and economic development. Contact: Cell: +263 778 921 881 | Email: simplisiochibaya22@gmail.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jabulani-simplisio-chibaya
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