Zimbabwe Ruling Party Wants Old Mutual Out of Stock Exchange

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) — Zimbabwe’s ruling party wants Old Mutual Ltd.’s listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange terminated, an official said, clarifying a weekend statement in which it called for the company to be “ejected” from the nation’s financial system.

“The statement was about the listing of Old Mutual on the stock exchange,” Tafadzwa Mugwadi, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s director of information and publicity, said by phone Monday from the capital, Harare. The party will issue an official statement on the matter later, he said.

Zimbabwe suspended trade on the domestic bourse on June 28 as part of a state effort to end the nation’s economic crisis. The government wants to eradicate the Old Mutual Implied Rate, a gauge used by domestic companies to determine the future cost of goods and services.

The company’s operations are continuing as normal while it seeks “clarity on the matter,” Clement Chinaka, Old Mutual’s managing director for the Rest of Africa, said in an emailed statement. The Johannesburg-based company, which has operated in the country for more than 120 years, “has been fully committed to contributing to the sustainable long-term development of the Zimbabwean economy,” he said.

The insurer is the largest company on the Zimbabwean bourse by market value. It has a member-weight contribution of 2.47% on the benchmark industrial index in Harare, ranking it 11th on the 57-member gauge by that measure.