Omega Ukama 
SOLAR energy firm Goodbook Investments (Goodbook) says it expects to list on Zimbabwe’s Financial Securities Exchange via Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the first quarter of this year after it received central bank approval for the transaction.
Apart from exchange control approvals, the company says its IPO, which was expected in 2019, had also been delayed by lack of liquidity within the local investment community.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) Exchange Control has given gave us an approval to sell shares in our IPO and retain 100 percent of the forex in a specially designated account, to be monitored,” Milan Vidovic, Goodbook’s chief operating officer told The Financial Gazette this week.
“FinSec have given us their full support and we are progressing well. We are hoping to complete all necessary steps in the first quarter of 2020,” he said.
If successful, the listing could be the first energy IPO in Zimbabwe.
Vidovic said the exchange control approvals, however, only relate to foreign IPO investors and foreign originated payments.
He further noted that the RBZ also approved the company’s request for all foreign credits to be retained in foreign currency.
The company, however, is still engaging the apex bank to allow it to deal in local nostro funds “for IPO shares or products”.
Even though this request was denied in December 2019, the company hopes that the central bank will reconsider.
“We hope to be permitted to engage cash deposits into the same monitored account… and to receive nostro funds from other locally held nostro accounts.
“This will simultaneously give us some currency for our imports as well as reduce our reliance on the RBZ,” Vidovic said.
Meanwhile, the company says it has secured US$800 000 funding from a “foreign impact investor who is ready to start releasing funds as soon as January 2020”.
“We are encouraged by the confidence of the foreign impact investor as it really underlines the commercial quality and social value of our mini solar home system project, despite the challenging investment environment,” he added.
Invest Solar Africa, a company focused on developing and financing income-generating renewable energy projects in selected markets in Africa, is also targeting to list on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
Severe power shortages in the country have seen alternative energy sources gain much prominence in Zimbabwe.
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