Senior Business Reporter
INFORMATION technology firm, Celsys Limited, is seeking re-admission on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange following its majority shareholder’s decision to call off a mandatory offer to minorities.
The company was suspended from trading on the ZSE in 2012.
“The board of Celsys Limited regrets to inform shareholders that Blueberry International will no longer be making an offer to minorities but will instead seek to reduce their majority shareholdings to levels where such an offer is not mandatory.

“In light of this development, the board and management of Celsys Limited have applied to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to lift the voluntary suspension and allow trading in Celsys shares,” said the company in a statement accompanying its financials last week.

The financial report was for the year ending February 28, 2014. Under the ZSE listing requirements, any majority shareholder with over 35 percent shareholding should make a mandatory offer to minorities.

During the period under review, Celsys loss widened to $254,000 from $200,000 due to high operating costs. Despite revenues increasing to $1 million from $858,000, an increase in cost of sales and administrative expenses weighed down on the company’s earnings.

Since the adoption of a multicurrency system in February 2009, about 29 counters have stopped trading on the ZSE either through suspension or voluntary delisting.
During the period under review, 14 counters were suspended while 15 others have been delisted from the stock exchange.

This was largely due to the liquidity constraints in the economy that has seen firms failing to raise money on the local bourse or attracting new investors to inject fresh capital.

Some of the firms that have been delisted on the ZSE include Cairns Holdings, Chemco Holdings, Interfresh, Gulliver, Interfin, Lifestyle Holdings, Phoenix Consolidated, Steelnet and financial services firm, Trust Holdings, delisted last year.

A significant number of the delisted firms failed to meet the minimum listing requirements, an indication of the volatile climate that has dogged the ZSE since dollarisation.

During the first week of January, PG Industries was suspended from the local bourse for failing to meet ZSE requirements due to a difficult operating environment.

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