The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
THE Financial Securities Exchange Limited (Finsec) has set up a working party that is putting in place the necessary financial resources to be deployed to qualifying enterprises.
The party comprises the Small Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe (SMEAZ) and representatives from asset managers, pension funds, financial advisors and private equity firms. Finsec, Zimbabwe’s first alternative trading platform and second licensed securities exchange, is a subsidiary of Escrow Group.
Responding to questions from Sunday News Business, Escrow Group chief commercial officer (CCO) Mr Garikayi Munema said the qualifying enterprises would benefit through Finsec Private Markets.
“The Finsec Private Markets is a market place that brings together private companies and investors seeking alternative investment opportunities. Using a digital platform, the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) Portal, the Finsec Private Markets is connecting enterprises. They are being connected to qualified institutional investors (QII) and high networth individuals (HNI) through automated screening, pipeline building, value discovery, funding and offers investors a smooth exit mechanism.
Finsec has since set up a working party which is putting in place the necessary financial resources to be deployed to qualifying enterprises as identified throughout the SME Association.”
He said the Finsec Private Markets offered enterprises value discovery, debt and equity funding, incubation, over the counter trading and acceleration.
Mr Munema said to financiers, the platform avails investment opportunities to QIIs and HNIs through pipeline of screened enterprises, indicative valuation, de-risking and continuous supervision of investments among others.
Introduced in 2021, the Finsec Private Markets as a private funding marketplace catering for businesses at every stage of its development came as there was overwhelming demand for private debt and private equity funding on the GEM Portal, which was launched in 2019.
United Nations Development Programme
Despite the increase in demand for funding on the GEM Portal, designed to assist small enterprises to raise capital, it emerged some of the applicants preferred not to immediately go public by listing, and instead opt to be privately funded while undergoing incubation ahead of eventual listing.
Hence, following the demand for private debt and private equity funding, Finsec introduced the Finsec Private Markets, an innovation tailor-made for the demands of growth enterprises and emerging local brands.
Finsec Private Markets is a unit wholly owned and operated by the exchange and is a private funding marketplace for businesses at every stage of development including those in start-up; growth, maturity, and declining phases.
Finsec launched the GEM Portal in 2019, an online digital platform connecting the demand and supply side of capital through securities exchange infrastructure.
According to Finsec, the GEM Portal received a lot of support from financiers and potential investors including the United National Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) who provided financial and technical support to set up the platform and in carrying out preliminary research into the demand for capital by growth enterprises.
Meanwhile, Escrow Group offers securities trading and settlement solutions, banking and payment solutions, registry maintenance and investment administration solutions. They operate directly and indirectly in 10 countries within East and Southern Africa.
