• Old Mutual’s migration to VFEX ends a six-year trading suspension
• The move reinforces VFEX as Zimbabwe’s primary exchange for blue chips, with rising liquidity, issuer migration, and a self-reinforcing cycle attracting institutional capital and USD-earning companies
• Zimbabwe’s equity market is structurally splitting, with VFEX consolidating exporters and dollar-denominated firms while the ZSE shifts toward domestic, ZiG-based businesses

Harare - Old Mutual’s decision to migrate its suspended secondary listing from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange resolves a six year trading freeze for Zimbabwean shareholders and confirms where the country’s large company capital market is consolidating.

The migration restores trading in Old Mutual shares through a United States dollar platform and adds another major issuer to an exchange that has already overtaken the ZSE in dollar market capitalisation.

Old Mutual’s shares have remained suspended in Zimbabwe since June 2020, when government halted trading on the ZSE over concerns surrounding implied exchange rates derived from fungible counters. The wider market reopened in August 2020, with Old Mutual remaining suspended. The group spent the following six years engaging government, regulators and exchange operators over a route back to active trading. Its board has now concluded that VFEX has developed sufficient scale and liquidity to support the listing, subject to regulatory approval.

The migration restores price discovery for shareholders holding a locally untradeable asset since 2020. Investors will regain the ability to buy and sell shares, receive dividends and participate in corporate actions through a domestic exchange. Trading and settlement will occur in United States dollars. The opening price will be determined through unrestricted matching of bids and offers on the first trading day, followed by the normal twenty percent daily movement limit from the second session.

The opening auction carries substantial valuation risk. Old Mutual continued trading on Johannesburg and other exchanges throughout the Zimbabwe suspension, leaving local shareholders without a domestic market reference for six years. The first VFEX price will absorb the value of restored liquidity, dollar settlement, local investor demand and Zimbabwe’s market depth. Old Mutual has warned that the opening price may bear no direct relationship to its last ZSE quotation or prevailing prices on its other exchanges.

Old Mutual’s rationale provides the stronger market story. The board concluded that VFEX had accumulated sufficient liquidity and scale to operate as a viable alternative market. Average annual turnover per issuer rose from US$0.3 million in 2021 to US$7 million in 2025, a more than twenty three fold increase. Average annual securities traded per issuer increased from 1.3 million to 96.1 million over the same period, exceeding the ZSE average of 67.7 million in 2025. VFEX expanded from one counter in 2020 to nineteen listed instruments by 2025.

These numbers place VFEX inside a self reinforcing market cycle. Recognised issuers attract institutional orders. Institutional orders deepen liquidity. Deeper liquidity improves price formation and lowers execution risk. Lower execution risk attracts additional issuers. Old Mutual’s migration strengthens that cycle because the counter adds a regional financial services group with established listings and a broad investor base.

The migration pattern now extends across mining, consumer goods, agriculture, property and telecommunications. TSL shareholders approved a move to VFEX after management argued that a business earning more than 97 percent of revenue in United States dollars required dollar based price discovery. The transaction carries no new capital raise and preserves existing ownership, reinforcing the use of VFEX as a valuation platform for companies with hard currency earnings. 

Econet followed a different route, shareholders approved the voluntary termination of its ZSE listing before the company separated infrastructure assets into Econet InfraCo, which entered VFEX with an initial valuation of about US$1 billion. Econet had represented roughly one third of ZSE market capitalisation when its exit process began, making the departure the largest single reduction in the exchange’s remaining scale. 

The cumulative movement changed the relative size of Zimbabwe’s exchanges during 2026. VFEX market capitalisation stood near US$3.78 billion at the end of May, against about US$2.73 billion on the ZSE. Econet’s exit had reduced ZSE market capitalisation to about US$2.58 billion at the end of April, with VFEX standing at approximately US$3.53 billion. The ZSE had carried dollar market capitalisation of about US$12.19 billion at the end of 2021. Currency depreciation, valuation discounts and corporate departures subsequently removed most of that value. 

Old Mutual is entering after the capital migration had already reached critical mass. During the six years spent pursuing a route back to trading, VFEX accumulated issuers, dollar liquidity, tax incentives and regulatory support. The insurer’s decision follows a market structure that had already moved toward United States dollar assets and institutional capital.

Currency now sits at the centre of corporate listing decisions. A stock exchange performs three core functions through capital raising, liquidity and price discovery. Each depends on the unit used to measure value. Companies earning most revenue and holding most assets in United States dollars face valuation distortion when their shares trade through a domestic currency exposed to depreciation. Investors apply wider discounts where the trading currency weakens comparability across periods.

VFEX reduces that valuation friction through United States dollar trading and settlement. Exporters and regionally exposed groups gain a pricing unit aligned more closely with revenue, cash generation and dividend capacity. Institutional investors gain a clearer benchmark for comparing Zimbabwean securities with regional and global assets.

The ZSE retains a broader issuer base, local visibility and access to ZiG capital. Its role is moving toward domestically focused companies, smaller businesses and issuers whose revenue remains tied to the local economy. VFEX is consolidating blue chips, exporters and dollar capital. Zimbabwe now operates two equity markets serving different currencies, different issuer profiles and different pools of investors.

This separation fragments an already shallow market. Orders, research coverage, brokerage revenue and institutional capital are divided across two platforms. The pressure increases as the most liquid companies cluster on VFEX and leave the ZSE with a larger number of thinly traded counters. The closure of the Old Mutual ZSE Top Ten ETF followed the shrinking investable universe after constituent departures reduced the product’s commercial foundation. 

The ZSE has responded through lower entry thresholds, reduced compliance requirements and the Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Exchange. The growth platform targets smaller and developing companies that remain dependent on bank finance and internal cash generation. These measures lower entry costs, with their commercial value dependent on active investors, credible market making, research coverage and reliable exit liquidity. 

The ZSE now needs a defined capital allocation role. Companies serving the domestic economy require a market capable of raising ZiG capital, building pension fund participation and supporting growth businesses through primary issuance. Listing numbers alone will not restore relevance. The exchange needs fresh capital formation, active secondary trading and a currency framework that preserves price meaning across reporting periods.

VFEX carries its own liquidity constraint. Average turnover per issuer has expanded sharply, with trading still concentrated in a limited group of counters. Old Mutual has cautioned that shareholders may struggle to execute desired volumes at acceptable prices. The first month of trading will establish whether the listing attracts sustained institutional demand or releases accumulated selling from investors locked into the counter since 2020.

The market should now track the opening price against Johannesburg, first month turnover, bid and offer spreads, institutional participation and subsequent migration announcements. These outcomes will establish whether Old Mutual deepens VFEX liquidity and accelerates the network effect already moving large issuers toward the dollar exchange.

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