Online Reporter
Business Reporter
ECONET Wireless Zimbabwe will hold a listing ceremony for its infrastructure subsidiary, Econet InfraCo, on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange this Friday, bringing to a close a comprehensive corporate restructuring that has seen the separation of the group’s real estate and passive telecommunications assets into a standalone listed entity.
The listing, scheduled for Tuesday, March 31, 2026, follows the conclusion of a dividend in specie distribution that ensured the subsidiary met the exchange’s public shareholding requirements. The ceremony will mark the admission of Econet InfraCo’s entire issued share capital of 2,992,163,203 ordinary shares to the VFEX by way of introduction.
The distribution, declared after the close of the company’s recent exit offer, saw 754,468,575 Econet InfraCo shares allocated to Econet shareholders.
The move fulfilled an undertaking made by directors during the exit offer process that if exiting shareholders’ participation failed to reach the 30 percent public shareholding threshold required for listing on the VFEX, a dividend in specie would be declared from the InfraCo shares retained by the company.
Following the conclusion of the exit offer, Econet held 2,848,982,817 shares in Econet InfraCo, representing 95,215 percent of the subsidiary’s issued share capital, with the remaining 143,180,386 shares (4,785 percent) held by shareholders who opted to exit.
With the threshold unmet, the board applied the formula set out in the circular to determine the distribution, calculated as 30 percent of total InfraCo shares (897,648,961) less the shares already held by exiting shareholders.
Qualifying shareholders received 0.26482 InfraCo shares for every one Econet share held, with no fractional entitlements allocated.
Following the distribution, the shareholding structure of Econet InfraCo will comprise 70 percent held by Econet and 30 percent by public shareholders, meeting the VFEX’s minimum public shareholding requirement.
The company will trade as a standalone integrated real estate and infrastructure entity, holding the group’s real estate, passive telecommunications infrastructure and renewable energy assets.
The VFEX listing framework, with its US dollar-denominated trading environment and focus on asset-backed issuers, was identified by the Econet board as more appropriate for the subsidiary’s business model. According to the circular issued to shareholders, applying relevant valuation methodologies to Econet InfraCo’s estimated earnings indicated an enterprise value of approximately US$1,0 billion, translating to an implied value of US$0.33 per share.
The board noted that listed property companies in Zimbabwe typically trade at significantly higher earnings multiples than integrated telecommunications operators, reflecting investor preference for asset-backed, income-generative platforms with long asset lives and predictable cash flows. The separation was intended to allow each business to be valued independently based on its respective risk and return characteristics.
Econet InfraCo’s business model is anchored on long-term, predominantly US dollar-denominated lease and access agreements with Econet as its anchor tenant.
The company intends progressively to expand infrastructure sharing arrangements with other licensed operators over time.
