Zimbabwean hospitality investor becomes the first ever to list on the JSE
Brainworks Limited is the first Zimbabwean company to have a primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Brainworks has subsidiaries in real estate (Dawn Properties), hospitality (African Sun), logistics (FML) and financial services (GetSure, GetBucks and GetCash). It is the 16th company to list on the JSE this year.
It is the first Zimbabwean company to list on the JSE main board under the Equity Investment Instruments (EII) sector, with the firm making its debut with the market capitalisation of just under R1 billion ($750m).
Brett Childs, the chief executive of Brainworks, said that the company was confident that its strategy of listing on the local bourse would prove sound and that international and Zimbabwean investors would view Brainworks as a vehicle to access our excellent asset portfolio and participate in the opportunity that was Zimbabwe, according to a report on www.iol.co.za.
Brainworks, which has controlling stakes in two companies listed on the Zimbabwean Stock Exchange (ZSE): African Sun, a hospitality management company and Dawn Properties, a real-estate investment holding, development and property consulting services company. The group also has seven resort hotels and four city hotels in Zimbabwe, with some of them under the management of South Africa’s Legacy Hotels and Resorts. It also has significant investments in the financial technology sector through Getsure, a microfinance life insurer.
The Mauritian registered investment holding company, with its investment base focused on the Zimbabwean hospitality, real estate, financial services and logistics sectors.
‘With approximately 38percent of group revenue generated in hard currency, through our hospitality division, a large property portfolio and our focus on micro finance, banking and insurance we are well placed to benefit in a changing economic environment,” Childs said. The JSE said the company was the first Zimbabwean company to have a primary listing on the JSE and the 16th company to list on the exchange this year.
The company said it was working on a facility with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which would allow Zimbabwean investors to buy shares of the company without the need to source for foreign currency.
In August, Zimbwabwe’s central bank established a Zimbabwe Portfolio Investment Fund to the tune of $5million (R66.27m), to facilitate the efficient repatriation of portfolio related funds to foreign investors invested specifically on the ZSE, a development meant to restore confidence in the market.
JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the oldest existing and largest stock exchange in Africa.
