Zimbabwe’s WestProp lists on Victoria Falls stock exchange
By Adebola Adegoke
A leading Zimbabwean property company, WestProp Holdings, has announced its official listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange.
Dr Michael Louis, Chairman of the Board, announced at a news conference held in Zimbabwe that the company would formally be listed on April 29.
He said the company had received approval to list two categories of share capital namely its ordinary shares and preference shares.
“It is my privilege to formally announce that on the 7th of March, the Registrar of Companies approved West Property Company Pvt Ltd., to become a public company and West Prop Holdings Ltd. was birthed and issued with its certificate of name change,” he said.
Louis said the shares would accordingly be opening an offer for public subscription for the securities from March 27 to April 21, 2023.
He said the decision was in line with the National Development Strategy of ZImbabwe to achieve an empowered upper-middle income society by 2030 to chart a new transformative and inclusive development agenda.
“The board thought of creative ideas to have a participatory inclusive economic model that really can help the poor and give everybody a secure future.
“We are further elated to announce that we have decided to list on the victoria fall stock exchange because of the numerous benefits it holds for shareholders, including but not limited to shares trading in US Dollars, no capital gains and minimum transaction costs.
“If you buy preference shares the company underwrites a minimum return of 7.5 per cent per annum on investments,” he said.
Louis added that WestProp’s IPO is to raise 30 million dollars in capital to accelerate the development of the company’s existing projects such as Pokugara Residential Estate, Millennium Heights, Pomona City, The Mall of Zimbabwe, Millennium Heights Office Park and the Hills Golf Estate.
This, he said, was in line with the company’s 2050 vision of one billion bricks resulting in thousands of jobs and a total value of five billion dollars.
“As we have now gone public, the board is convinced the time is now for individuals to be part of a bigger family to start investing in their long-term future and especially encourage the youth to start participating.
“To this end, the board will be investing in educational literacy programmes to transform and educate the public and especially the youth regarding their responsibility of securing a generational future,” he said.
Louis, the new chairman of the board acknowledged the achievements of Kenneth Sharpe, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and his team that have led the company to receive several international and national awards.
The awards included Company of the Year 2023 ( Zim land Developments and construction Awards); Property Development Company of the Year 2021. ( Property Magazine); Company of the Year National Awards 2021 (Zimbabwe Business Awards).
Others were Best Real Estate Innovative company of the year 2021 (Zim Infrastructure Investment summit);
Outstanding Property Development company 2022. (Zim CEO Network).
In his remarks, Sharpe announced that the company was offering one million ordinary shares at 10 dollars each and 5.4 million preferential redeemable convertible shares at 5 dollars each.
According to him, the preferential shares allow investors five years to decide to become ordinary shareholders during which time they will benefit from a minimum guaranteed return of 7.5 per cent per year as well as dividends from the company’s profits.
“This is likely to result in over 10 per cent per year being paid out which is an amount that no other listed company or bank in Zimbabwe is currently offering investors.
“We have a goal of taking our company from the current annual sales of 40 million dollars to over 100 million dollars within seven years and to create a balance sheet that will exceed one billion dollars in value which is more than five times the one today.
“All the shareholders will benefit from this growth. We know It is achievable and within our grasp,” he said
He said the company’s corporate strategy statement was to pioneer world-class, vertically-integrated, premium lifestyle communities in Zimbabwe by 2025.
“It is not a coincidence that we have targeted one billion bricks if you look at our projected construction for the projects we have designed, it will take one billion bricks and five billion dollars to complete them.
“Every day we are putting bricks into the ground working towards the vision where we know that within the next 27 years, we will have laid one billion bricks.
“As of today, we have laid 5,298,975 bricks and we have 55, 626,972 committed bricks from our existing sales,” he said.
“This ensures we have smart cities encompass the live, work, shop and play model which means we provide social amenities like shopping malls, sporting facilities, creches, churches and many other recreational facilities in a safe 24 hour secure gated community,” he said.
He also assured the public that the benefits of investing in the company were multi-dimensional.
According to him, the company guarantees a secure investment where someone who’s investing 50 dollars will know that their money will still be there in one month, in one year and five years.
“It’s an alternative to the banks. There’s no cost we deduct for holding that value on behalf of the investor, and they are guaranteed that their investment is safe with us.
“Once they have invested with us, the investment doesn’t just stay at the 50 dollars that they invested. We give a solid return. The reason why we’re able to give them an expected return of over 10 per cent a year in USD is that we are highly profitable.
“We are saying that together with the public, we can join hands and build Zimbabwe because the opportunity to invest with us will allow us and the public to come together, hold hands and build our country brick by brick.
“We are doing this today through IPO and the listing, benefiting yourself in becoming a shareholder with us, you are joining hands in owning the assets that we own,” he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Chioma Ugboma
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