Controversial‘public company’ WestProp’s presence on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VEFX) has produced a simple, stubborn fact, zero shares traded from inception to date. No volume. No turnover.
No price discovery. For a public listing, this is not just unusual it is a fundamental failure of purpose. A stock exchange exists to enable trading.
When a company lists and nothing trades for years, the inevitable question arises, was the listing meant to create a market, or merely the appearance of one? At the same time, WestProp’s CEO Kenneth Raydon Sharpe a controversial businessman is pursuing urgent court action against The Harare Times, seeking to restrain publication linked to him or his company. To critics, the contrast is striking, aggressive legal action against media scrutiny, but complete silence on a dormant stock listing.
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Accused of profiting from his political connections and despoiling the natural environment, Sharpe is battling it out in court with two of his most prominent critics former finance minister Tendai Biti and former opposition MP for Harare North, Allan ‘Rusty’ Markham. Investors are left with no way to enter or exit. Valuation is theoretical.
Transparency is absent. Yet the listing remains. If trades have occurred, they should be published.
If none have occurred, the public deserves a clear explanation. Markets do not run on silence, and credibility does not survive unanswered questions. You can’t muzzle the media for you to paint a good picture on a non moving entity.
A public listing without a public market is not confidence-building. It is confidence-eroding. Until clarity is provided, WestProp’s VFEX listing stands as an uncomfortable symbol of a deeper problem when listings exist, but markets do not.
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