The 10 counters driving the Zimbabwe stock market bull-run

9. OLD MUTUAL

Old Mutual Zimbabwe, is valued at $263.77 million, with a market share of 3.25 percent on the local bourse.

In the year to date, the company has advanced 40.5 percent to 490.71 cents.

The company’s after tax profit jumped seven-fold to $89.4 million in the six months to June from $12.5 million in the comparable period last year mainly due to an increase in investment income.

The group’s funds under management increased by 31 percent to $2.1 billion in the period , attributable to a surge in equities.

The group’s total assets also increased to $2.39 billion from $2.16 billion previously, on the back of an increase in investments and securities.

The group is building a SME centre which is now 50 percent complete and is expected to be commissioned in the first half of next year.

The company recently commissioned the Kupinga Hydroelectric project in Chipinge.

Old Mutual invested $5 million in the Kupinga 1.6 MW Hydro power station project , and is expecting a 17 percent annual return from the project.

The group has a 20-year power purchasing agreement with Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC).

10. NATIONAL FOODS

Heavy weight counter, National Foods, is valued at $360.9 million, with a market share of 3.22 percent on the local bourse.

In the year to date, the company has advanced 5.9 percent to 381.5 cents.

The company reported that after tax profit marginally decreased to $6.58 million from $6.63 million in the six months to December 31, 2016, largely weighed down by a poor performance by the maize division.

Net borrowings amounted to $1.8 million while capital expenditure for the period was $2.1 million.

The group’s ability to settle foreign creditors deteriorated markedly over the period due to the difficulties experienced by the banking sector in making foreign remittances.

As a result, the group incurs substantial cost due to penalties on late payments as well as more expensive foreign credit lines.

However several categories including flour and rice saw volume increases on the back of government’s policy to reduce imports of finished goods following the implementation of SI64 of 2016 as well as the challenges faced across the food sector in accessing foreign currency for raw materials. – The Source

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