Old Mutual Limited has confirmed that it intends to proceed with the migration of its secondary listing in Zimbabwe from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange, bringing to a close one of the country’s most protracted capital markets disputes. The move, disclosed in a company announcement on 10 July 2026, remains subject to regulatory approval, but signals the anticipated end of a suspension that has locked Zimbabwean shareholders out of trading in one of the country’s largest listed financial institutions since June 2020.
The origins of the suspension lie in a directive issued by the Government of Zimbabwe in June 2020, which halted trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in response to concerns over an implied exchange rate derived from the differential between Old Mutual’s Harare and Johannesburg share prices, along with broader instability in the foreign currency market at the time. That mechanism, informally known as the Old Mutual Implied Rate, became a widely referenced, if unofficial, barometer for pricing in an economy then grappling with acute currency volatility. Old Mutual was suspended alongside PPC Limited and Seed Co, though trading on the exchange more broadly resumed in August 2020. Seed Co subsequently migrated to the VFEX later that year. Old Mutual, notably, has stated that it was not responsible for the continuation of its own suspension, and that it has since engaged extensively with the Zimbabwean government and relevant regulatory and exchange authorities to find a resolution.
In its statement, the Old Mutual board expressed the view that the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange has, in its words, come into its own, having developed sufficient scale and liquidity to serve as a credible alternative trading platform to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The board pointed to a marked expansion in activity on the dollar denominated bourse, with average annual turnover per issuer rising from around 0.3 million United States dollars in 2021 to approximately 7.0 million dollars in 2025, alongside a substantial increase in securities traded per issuer over the same period, according to figures cited in the company’s regulatory filing.
Group Chief Executive Jurie Strydom said the board considered the migration to be in the long term interests of all stakeholders, while Old Mutual Zimbabwe Chief Executive Samuel Matsekete framed the decision as consistent with the group’s commitment to strengthening Zimbabwe’s financial and capital markets, as reported by the Zimbabwe Herald. ZSE Holdings Group Chief Executive Justin Bgoni welcomed the announcement, describing it as a signal of confidence in the domestic economy and in the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange specifically, and confirmed that lengthy engagement between the two exchanges and Old Mutual had culminated in an agreed pathway for migration, according to Newsday.
Once the migration is completed, the initial trading price of Old Mutual shares on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange will be determined independently by the market, through the ordinary submission and matching of bids and offers, rather than pegged to prior prices on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange or to concurrent pricing on the London or Johannesburg exchanges. Normal trading limits will apply from the second day of trading. Shareholders will be required to register through authorised brokers, custodians or the VFEX Direct platform in order to participate.
The development carries significance beyond the fortunes of a single insurer. It reflects the broader trajectory of Zimbabwe’s dual exchange architecture, in which the domestic, local currency denominated Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and the internationally oriented, dollar denominated Victoria Falls Stock Exchange have increasingly diverged in character and purpose. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mushayavanhu has previously encouraged companies still suspended on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to consider the Victoria Falls option, citing improved macroeconomic conditions, as reported by African Capital Markets News.Analysts have suggested that a resolution of Old Mutual’s status could carry meaningful implications for liquidity and investor confidence across the wider market, given the company’s standing among pension funds, insurers, and retail shareholders in Zimbabwe.
It is important, in reporting developments of this nature, to resist the temptation to reduce African capital markets to a single, static narrative of instability or dysfunction. What this migration illustrates instead is a more layered and evolving story, one in which Zimbabwean regulators, exchanges and corporates are actively negotiating solutions to a six year impasse, and in which African financial infrastructure, in the form of the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange itself, is presented by the very corporate boards involved as having matured to a point where it can absorb a listing of this scale. That is a materially different story from one of externally imposed correction, and it deserves to be told with the nuance it warrants.
Old Mutual’s ordinary shares closed in London at 60.38 pence on Friday, up 0.3 per cent on the day and some 23 per cent higher over the preceding twelve months. In Johannesburg, the shares stood at 13.20 South African rand, up 0.7 per cent, with a twelve month gain of approximately 12 per cent. PPC Limited remains the sole company among the original three suspended in 2020 yet to resume trading on a Zimbabwean exchange.
