Foreigners grab GetBucks stock

FOREIGN investors were net buyers of $12,3 million worth of shares on the local bourse last month, with GetBucks stock accounting for 80 percent of the transactions.
According to Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) figures, foreign purchases accounted for $38,2 million worth of shares while sales amounted to $26 million during the period under review.
GetBucks dominated the net buys of $10,4 million. It was followed by Old Mutual, which accounted for $6,1 million, Econet Wireless at $1,3 million, First Mutual Limited (FML) at $986 457 and Zimre Properties Investments at $165 998.
Interest in GetBucks was largely due to Brainworks’disposal of its stake in GetBucks Microfinance to ease its debt burden.
The disposal, which reduced Brainworks’ stake in GetBucks by about two percent to just under 30 percent, earned $565 340 for the company.
The company announced in a statement that it had sold 18 596 910 GetBucks shares through its associate, Brainworks Capital Management.
“Brainworks … has together with Brainworks Capital Management … entered into the disposal of 16 343 731 ordinary shares in GetBucks at a price of $0,030 per GetBucks share to Stodaflo. .. (and) the disposal of 2 253 179 ordinary shares in GetBucks to Fodnort at a price of $0,033299 per share,” it said.
GetBucks recorded a net profit of $2,58 million in the six months to December 2017, a 51 percent increase from prior year.
Interest in Old Mutual shares was attributed to the group’s breaking up of its vast financial empire into four strategic units.
Old Mutual returned to the ZSE in June this year after the parent company completed a restructuring process which ended its 19-year stint on the London Stock Exchange.
The financial group’s shares were listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with a secondary listing on the Zimbabwe, Nairobi and Malawi exchanges.
Old Mutual plc split the group into four independent businesses ― Old Mutual Emerging Markets, NedBank Group, Old Mutual Wealth and Old Mutual Asset Management ― as part of a strategy to unlock and create long-term value as well as removing the significant costs arising from the current structure following the introduction of bond notes in November 2016.
Renewed interest in Econet shares followed the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe’s 2018 first quarter sector released last month, which showed that the company maintained its customer and revenue market share lead on the back of consistent growth in the key industry performance indicators.
The sector performance report issued every quarter by the industry regulator revealed that Econet was the only operator to increase its active customer subscription base, by 2,2 percent, in the three months from January to March.
The country’s largest mobile telecommunication company by subscribers and net earnings added 160 000 new customers to its subscriber base in the quarter, from 7 488 588 in Q4 of 2017 to 7 651 312.
The ZSE-listed company was the only one of the three licensed operators to register positive customer growth.
Meanwhile, FML says it has lined up strategies to back the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s financial inclusion plan.
The country’s second largest life assurance company said it had noticed significant gaps in financial literacy and lack of risk mitigation knowledge across all social strata.
It said research had revealed that everyone required support to understand personal finance planning, including post retirement s