Edgars only moved to the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange in 2024, and now the retailer plans to delist. Its largest shareholder, Annunaki Investments, is offering to buy out minority investors at US2.48 cents a share. Annunaki and another allied shareholder, Bellfield, which owns 21.79%, control 44.07% of the company. Shareholders vote on 27 August.
In a circular to shareholders, Edgars has laid out why it believes that staying on the stock market no longer makes sense, and what the move says about Zimbabwe’s retail sector and capital markets.
Informal traders have overturned retail
Edgars says the growth of the informal sector means it needs to move faster. “The termination of the listing is intended to strengthen Edgars’ competitive position in a retail landscape increasingly shaped by the growth of the informal sector,” it says. Operating as a private company will allow “more agile decision-making” and “faster responses to market dynamics.”
Listing costs are too high
The company says money spent on regulatory and compliance requirements would be better invested in its stores, merchandise and customer experience.
It doesn’t need the market for funding: Edgars chairman Thembinkosi Sibanda says the needs of “maintaining a public listing are increasingly difficult to justify in the absence of a near-term requirement to access public equity markets.”
Hardly anyone trades the shares: The company says only 4.75% of its shares traded during 2025, with trades worth US$474,142 for the year, an average of just US$1,920 a day. It says the buyout gives shareholders a rare chance to exit an illiquid investment while the shares are still listed.
What it says about Zimbabwe’s markets
Edgars’ decision reflects two broader trends. Formal retailers are under pressure from the informal sector and are looking for ways to cut costs and move faster so they can complete. It also raises questions about Zimbabwe’s capital markets. Edgars migrated from the ZSE to the VFEX only in 2024, yet now says the benefits of being listed no longer justify the costs. The question is whether Zimbabwe’s exchanges can provide companies with enough liquidity and access to capital to persuade them to stay listed.
ALSO READ – The Game Plan | If you can’t beat them, join them: Edgars’ strategy to take on cheap clothing retailers
