adminImara, the pan-African financial services group, has alerted international investors to a new opportunity for significant yields — as long as they are prepared to accept resultant risk. The opportunity is highlighted in the latest report to investors by the Imara Zimbabwe Fund, one of a portfolio of funds run by Imara that maintain dedicated focus on African securities.
The chance for comparatively high yields springs from the recent Monetary Policy Statement made by John Mangudya, the newly appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
In the statement, the governor eased all exchange control restrictions on foreign investors holding money market instruments.
Previously, foreigner investors could only acquire up to 35 percent of any bond issue and were not able to buy any bonds in the secondary market at all.
John Legat, manager of the Imara Zimbabwe Fund, commented: “Now that Zimbabwe uses the US dollar, interest rates in US dollars are extremely attractive in Zimbabwe as compared to almost anywhere else in the world.
“For yield-seeking investors prepared to take additional risk, such rates could be of great interest on a risk-adjusted basis. The stock exchange is keen to promote a bond market for both government and corporate bonds and this will assist them greatly, especially as foreign investors have lately dominated trade in the equity market.”
Legat noted that the governor’s policy statement repeatedly emphasised the need to attract foreign direct investment into the country as a way to recapitalise businesses and provide technical support.
Imara is an independent, Botswana-listed investment banking group that prides itself on objective decision-making in the service of its clients.
The company is mid-sized and has offices in Angola, Botswana, South Africa and the UK and associate offices in Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Imara has also partnered with Chapel Hill Denham in Nigeria, Sterling Bank in Kenya, Namibia Equity Brokers and Mac Capital in Dubai.
Online Reporter