Harare - The Financial Securities Exchange (Private Limited) in a notice directed to all capital market participants, the investing public and other stakeholders on Friday said Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited (OMZIL) Class B Shares can now be bought and sold by non-indigenous investors.

FINSEC is registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe as a Securities Exchange, (Alternative Trading Platform) under Section 30 of the Securities Exchange Act [Chapter 24:25] as read with the Securities (ATP) Rules S.1.100 of 2016.

An ATP is a system that provides and maintains a marketplace or facilities for bringing together buyers and sellers of securities but does not set rules for participants or discipline or seek to control them other than by excluding them from trading.

In the notice FINSEC said the development follows a decision by Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited to remove the restriction of the trading of the OMZIL B Class Shares listed on the Financial Securities Exchange.

“The OMZIL decision was in response to amendments to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (Chapter 14:33).

“Old Mutual Zimbabwe B Class Shares will therefore migrate from the Empowerment Segment of the FINSEC Equities Trading Board to the FINSEC Main Trading Board with immediate effect,” it said adding that investors are advised to contact their brokers or financial advisors if they need further notice on the matter.

OMZIL B Class sales came as an endorsement of Government’s indigenisation programme in 2011 and OMZIL became the first company to trade its empowerment shares on the Financial Securities (FINSEC) Alternative Trading Platform (ATP) in 2016.

In pursuit of implementing the company’s indigenisation plan, a total of 83 011 718 issued and fully paid B Class shares in the capital of the company were set aside for allocation to approved shareholders.

The shares had a nominal value of $0,0000032 per share and the indigenisation plan was approved by the then Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere in November 2011 and resulted in 10 percent of Old Mutual Zimbabwe being awarded to qualifying staff (comprised of 7 percent to staff share schemes while 3 percent went to the staff pension fund).

Pensioners benefited from an equivalent of 9 percent of the company (8 percent to client pensioners and 1 percent to retired staff), while the company’s strategic partners and the Youth Fund were allocated 3.5 percent and up to 2.5 percent respectively.

According to the former President Robert Mugabe, Government introduced the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Policy to deliberately empower historically disadvantaged indigenous Zimbabweans and to grant them ownership and control of the country’s means and factors of production.

Elsewhere OM Plc will move on with a scheduled primary listing on the JSE and secondary listings across some African stock markets including Zimbabwe in pursuit of the managed separation strategic undertaking.