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Pick n Pay's Zim partner mulls delisting

Harare – Zimbabwean conglomerate Meikles Limited is mulling delisting from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and is planning an offer to minority shareholders, it said in a cautionary on Wednesday.

Meikles is Pick n Pay’s partner in the TM Supermarkets chain in Zimbabwe. It also operates city and resort hotels, and recently ventured into mining in addition to tea processing operations.

“The directors of Meikles Limited wish to advise shareholders that the company is currently engaged in discussion on a transaction that may have material impact on the value of the company,” Thabani Mpofu, company secretary for Meikles, said in the cautionary.

Meikles has previously had disagreements with the ZSE and in 2015, the stock market suspended the company’s stock from trading over alleged misrepresentation of facts in its financials. The two parties later made an arrangement which saw the suspension lifted.

However, this appears to have soured relations, with Meikles chairperson John Moxon saying the debacle had impacted on plans to list the supermarket chain on the ZSE. He also subsequently said Meikles would consider delisting from the bourse.

Moxon said in 2015 that the manner in which it was suspended from the ZSE had led to serious considerations about “whether there is any purpose to a listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange”.

On Wednesday, Mpofu said: “The transaction relates to a possible offer to minorities and subsequent delisting of the company from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, in line with section 9 of the ZSE listing requirements." New listings on the ZSE have been few and far between over the past few years as companies wilt under the country's economic woes.

In the year to end-March 2016, Meikles raised turnover by 10% to $454m, with all its units seeing increased revenue generation except the hospitality wing. The company, which delayed its financials for the period owing to a debt owed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and for which it has subsequently received treasury bills, saw its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increase by about $11.5m.  

Market capitalisation on the ZSE fell by 3.4% in February to $3.7bn, although turnover increased by 28% to $10.9bn.

The Zimbabwean bourse marginally rose to $3.8bn market capitalisation in trade dealings on Tuesday after the Industrial index rose 0.51% to 135.12 points buoyed by a 1.20% gain in Delta Corporation, the associate unit of the merged SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch InBev entity.

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