• Dairibord Holdings has become the latest high-profile manufacturer to move toward a Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) exit, joining an accelerating 2026 departure queues
• Dairibord's board highlighted the exact structural grievances cited by its predecessors
• To sustain its intensive expansion program, Dairibord requires frictionless access to hard-currency equity and debt funding

Harare- Dairibord Holdings is set to be the latest delisting form the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange according to the latest circular to shareholders.

Dairibord Holdings led the ZSE's gainers on Wednesday 24 June 2026 with a 14.38% share price appreciation, closing at ZWG 3.2025 per share, the day before the cautionary was issued, suggesting the market had begun pricing the anticipated announcement.

Dairibord's current profit margins stand at 1.4%, lower than the prior year's 4.2%, and the company enters the VFEX migration process with a performance trajectory that has been under pressure, making the structural benefits of a USD-denominated listing more commercially urgent than the headline numbers alone indicate.

As a manufacturer whose raw materials,  milk solids, packaging, processing inputs  are priced in USD while its revenues are materially exposed to ZiG-denominated domestic consumer spending, the valuation framework that a USD exchange provides is not cosmetic, it is the difference between a share price that reflects what the business is actually worth and one that reflects what ZiG liquidity permits traders to pay.

Dairibord's announcement did not arrive in isolation. It arrived at the end of a multi-year exit wave that has systematically removed Zimbabwe's most commercially significant companies from the exchange that once housed them. The full record, built from confirmed company announcements and exchange data, documents a migration whose cumulative effect has fundamentally restructured Zimbabwe's listed equity landscape.

The first wave was the deliberate VFEX migration cohort. Over the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, notable exits included Padenga Holdings, Axia Corporation, and Bridgefort Capital, as well as VFEX migrations by Innscor Africa, National Foods, Simbisa Brands, and Zimplow Holdings. SeedCo International and Bindura Nickel Corporation preceded these, with SeedCo becoming one of the VFEX's earliest listings. First Capital Bank and Edgars Stores followed in 2023 and 2024 respectively, each citing the USD valuation environment and institutional investor access that the VFEX's hard-currency architecture provides.

The second wave was more seismic. Among the biggest departures was Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, previously one of the ZSE's largest counters by market capitalisation. Econet's exit wiped approximately ZiG 30.5 billion (USD 1.2 billion) from the exchange and significantly weakened trading activity. Econet's departure in March 2026, simultaneous with the VFEX listing of Econet InfraCo at a USD 1 billion initial market capitalisation, was the single event that most visibly altered the ZSE's competitive position. As of December 2025, Econet accounted for approximately 35% of the ZSE's total market capitalisation, and its removal compressed the exchange's investible asset base at a stroke.

The permanent delistings run alongside the VFEX migrations as a parallel drain. In 2025, departures included the Old Mutual Top Ten ETF in January, Khayah Cement in May, Truworths in July, and National Tyre Services effective December 31. African Sun, which had migrated to the VFEX from the ZSE, subsequently delisted from the VFEX entirely in April 2026, selling its Monomotapa Hotel to PSPF for USD 18 million and contracting its portfolio as it went private.

First Mutual Properties confirmed its delisting process in early 2026. Tobacco processor TSL Limited announced plans to delist from the ZSE and list on VFEX, and now Dairibord, announced on 25 June 2026, takes its place as the most recent name in a roster whose length has become the ZSE's defining narrative.

Why Every Company Gives the Same Reason

The reasons cited by departing companies follow a remarkably consistent pattern. Chronic undervaluation, thin liquidity, and limited investor participation are the structural complaints that recur across every cautionary statement and board resolution. For companies whose revenues are predominantly USD-denominated, gold miners, agro-processors, telecom operators, fast-food chains, dairy manufacturers with imported input costs, the ZSE's ZiG-denominated trading environment creates a systematic valuation gap between what the business is worth in USD terms and what the share price implies.

For Dairibord, whose operations involve imported raw materials, packaging and equipment, a VFEX listing could enhance access to foreign capital while providing a valuation benchmark in US dollars. The move is also expected to strengthen the company's visibility among regional and international investors, particularly as Zimbabwe seeks to position the VFEX as a gateway for investment into the economy. House of Commons Library

The valuation gap mechanism is straightforward and its effects are cumulative. A ZiG-denominated share price that tracks ZiG liquidity conditions rather than USD earnings power will persistently discount a USD-earning company. That discount makes it impossible to use the company's shares as acquisition currency, raises the cost of equity capital for any rights issue, and makes the listed status commercially worthless for purposes beyond regulatory compliance.

When the costs of maintaining a ZSE listing  compliance costs, disclosure obligations, audit fees calibrated to listed company standards, ZiG share register management  exceed the commercial benefits of the listing, the rational decision is to leave. GetBucks Zimbabwe exited in 2023 amid low trading volumes and a reassessment of the costs and benefits of a public listing. Every company that has followed has made the same calculation.

The VFEX has increasingly become Zimbabwe's preferred institutional exchange as capital migrates towards export-oriented companies and firms generating revenues in US dollars. The shift reflects broader investor concerns over exchange-rate volatility and the impact of local currency instability on asset valuations.

The ZSE's market capitalisation stood at approximately USD 12.19 billion at the end of 2021 before plunging to about USD 2.92 billion by October 2022 amid policy shocks and currency instability. As of late May 2026, the ZSE's market capitalisation stood at approximately USD 3.26 billion, compared to the VFEX's USD 3.54 billion.

For the first time in the history of the two exchanges, the VFEX has overtaken the ZSE in total market capitalisation. The exchange that was created as a specialist USD platform in 2020 is now larger than the exchange from which it drew its founding listings.

The VFEX recorded a solid month in May 2026, with the All-Share Index rising 7% month-on-month and year-to-date gains reaching 38.3%. Victoria Falls Stock Exchange closed May with the All-Share Index rising 7.08% to 245.12 while market capitalisation increased to USD 3.79 billion, lifting year-to-date gains to 69.4%.

The VFEX's year-to-date performance of 69.4% against the ZSE's subdued equivalent is the market's most direct verdict on the relative investment cases of the two exchanges. Facebook

The ZSE that remains is a materially different market from the one that existed in 2021. Its remaining anchor companies, Delta Corporation, CBZ Holdings, FBC Holdings, Rainbow Tourism Group, ZB Financial Holdings, Zimre Holdings  are predominantly financial sector and consumer goods companies whose ZiG revenue base makes the ZSE the natural exchange for their shares.

However, the industrial companies, the agro-processors, the miners, the diversified manufacturers, and the telecommunications operators that generate primarily USD revenues have almost all gone. The ZSE's current composition reflects what is left after the USD-earning companies have departed rather than a curated portfolio of Zimbabwe's most commercially significant enterprises.

Dairibord's Specific Case

Dairibord Holdings Limited, incorporated on 29 April 1994, is one of Zimbabwe's largest manufacturing and marketing companies in the food and beverages sector, with factories in Harare, Chitungwiza, Bulawayo, Gweru, Kadoma, Mutare, and Chipinge, and operations in Malawi located in Blantyre and Mulanje District. The company was originally a state-owned enterprise established for processing and marketing milk products, which was successfully privatised by the Government of Zimbabwe.

The timing of Dairibord's migration announcement is analytically connected to its operating trajectory. The company's current profit margins stand at 1.4%, lower than the prior year's 4.2%, a contraction whose causes are visible in the structural pressures facing Zimbabwe's domestic FMCG manufacturers.

Dairibord's raw material base, fresh milk from contract farmers, imported packaging materials, flavourings, preservatives, and processing inputs  carries significant USD cost exposure. Its revenue base, by contrast, is overwhelmingly domestic consumer spending in ZiG, whose purchasing power trajectory since September 2024's devaluation has compressed the real value of ZiG revenues relative to the USD cost base they must service.

The 1.4% net margin against 4.2% in the prior period is the income statement expression of that structural mismatch. Statista

A VFEX listing does not resolve the ZiG revenue versus USD cost mismatch in Dairibord's operating model. What it does is provide a valuation framework that prices the company's USD-equivalent earnings rather than its ZiG nominal revenues, which is the difference between a share price that reflects the business's actual asset base and earning power and one that reflects what ZiG-denominated market participants are prepared to pay for ZiG-denominated earnings disclosure. For a company with factories in seven Zimbabwean cities and operations across two countries, the USD-basis valuation that VFEX provides is a materially fairer reflection of the replacement cost of those assets than any ZiG market price can be.

The 14.38% share price appreciation on 24 June 2026, the day before the formal cautionary, reflects the market's recognition of exactly this dynamic. Dairibord's shares re-rated upward the moment the migration was anticipated, confirming that the ZSE price had been persistently undervaluing the company relative to what a USD-denominated investor would pay for the same asset base. The cautionary's own language confirms this: the transaction may have a material effect on the market price of the company's shares, which is the regulatory disclosure's understated acknowledgement that the VFEX listing is expected to generate a higher valuation.

The ZSE Response

The ZSE Holdings, which controls both the ZSE and VFEX, unveiled sweeping reforms aimed at attracting new listings and improving competitiveness. The measures include reducing the minimum listing threshold from USD 10 million to USD 1 million and relaxing minimum free-float and shareholder spread requirements for a trial period. The measures are widely viewed as a direct response to intensifying competition from VFEX and the continued migration of companies away from ZSE.

Reducing the minimum listing threshold from USD 10 million to USD 1 million is a reform whose logic is internally coherent but whose direction is analytically perverse. The ZSE does not have a listing problem caused by companies being too large for its threshold. It has a listing problem caused by its largest existing companies leaving.

Practice Note 18 targets the entry threshold for new listings at the bottom of the market capitalisation range while doing nothing to address the structural incentives that are driving USD-earning companies out at the top. A USD 1 million threshold company whose ZiG revenue base makes it a natural ZSE listing adds market breadth without addressing the market depth problem that the departure of Econet, Innscor, Padenga, TSL, and now Dairibord has created. The micro-cap listings that a USD 1 million threshold attracts cannot substitute for the institutional-grade companies whose departure has compressed the ZSE's investible universe.

For institutional investors such as pension funds, insurers and asset managers, the shrinking number of listed securities presents growing challenges. Old Mutual CEO Matsekete flagged that although exiting firms often cite legitimate reasons for their withdrawal, the resulting effect is a contraction in the pool of investible listed assets. Matsekete noted that Old Mutual maintains a strong pipeline of opportunities across other asset classes, such as property and alternative investments, ensuring that available capital can continue to be efficiently deployed. However, he stressed that vibrant capital markets remained critical for economic growth, savings mobilisation and corporate financing.

The pension fund liquidity problem is the most practically significant downstream effect of the ZSE exodus. Zimbabwe's pension fund industry manages a substantial pool of member savings whose regulatory investment guidelines specify minimum allocations to listed equities. As the number and market capitalisation of ZSE-listed companies contracts, pension funds face a growing mismatch between their regulatory equity mandates and the available investible universe. The result is either forced concentration in a smaller number of ZSE counters, driving up valuations of the remaining listings beyond what fundamentals justify, or regulatory exemptions that redirect pension capital to alternative asset classes. Neither outcome supports the deep, liquid secondary market that the ZSE's role as Zimbabwe's primary retail investor platform requires.

What Remains on the ZSE and What the Exchange Actually Is Now

The ZSE that exists after Dairibord's departure, TSL's confirmed migration, and the long list of prior exits is not a failed exchange. It is a fundamentally different exchange from the one that existed in 2021, whose purpose and investor base have shifted in ways that its market capitalisation numbers do not fully capture.

Delta Corporation, the largest remaining ZSE counter, is a domestically-focused beverages and beer manufacturer whose ZiG revenue base makes the ZSE a natural home for its shares. CBZ Holdings, FBC Holdings, and ZB Financial Holdings are banking conglomerates whose regulatory environment and ZiG-denominated balance sheets anchor them to the domestic exchange.

Zimre Holdings, ZimRe, and First Mutual Holdings are insurance and financial services companies with similar domestic revenue profiles. Proplastics, CAFCA, and ART Corporation are manufacturers with predominantly domestic sales. The ZSE that remains is, with important exceptions, the exchange for companies whose commercial operations are fundamentally ZiG-denominated, whose customer base is domestic, and whose capital allocation decisions do not require USD equity pricing.

That is not a worthless exchange, it is a domestically oriented exchange serving the companies and investors whose natural currency is ZiG, whose liquidity constraints match the ZiG money supply rather than international capital flows, and whose listing environment reflects the domestic economy's monetary architecture. Its problem is not that it lacks that purpose but that its 2021 incarnation, which also served as the primary listing venue for Zimbabwe's USD-earning export-oriented industrial sector, has been replaced by a dual-exchange architecture in which the ZSE serves the domestic economy and the VFEX serves the export and USD-earning economy.

The boundary between those two economies runs through Dairibord Holdings' operating model, imported raw materials in USD, domestic food sales in ZiG, which is why the company's cautionary statement marks not just another migration but the blurring of the boundary that once kept the dairy manufacturer in the domestic exchange's orbit.

The ZSE exodus is not finished. The structural incentives driving USD-earning companies toward the VFEX have not changed, and the pool of companies still listed on the ZSE whose revenue base has material USD exposure is not yet empty. Dairibord Holdings has become the latest major company to seek the benefits offered by the foreign currency-denominated bourse.

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