Hippo Valley’s share trading suspension lifted

ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed sugar producer, Hippo Valley Estates Limited, had its shares trading again on the local bourse effective yesterday after its trading suspension was lifted.

The suspension came into effect last August pending finalisation of investigations by the parent firm, Tongaat Hullet Limited (THL) and publication of the company’s full year 2019 financials.

Said ZSE chief executive officer Justin Bgoni: “The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange Limited (“ZSE”) hereby notifies the investing public of the lifting of suspension in the trading of Hippo shares with effect from 17 February 2020.

“The ZSE has now received confirmation from Hippo of the conclusion of the THL investigations and have applied for the lifting of the voluntary suspension from trading.”

Hippo Valley had fully met all the pre-requisite compliance issues to the satisfaction of the listings committee, which in turn lifted the suspension on trading of the shares.

“The ZSE Listings Committee satisfied itself that all the compliance issues, which led to the suspension had been fully met and resolved to lift the suspension with effect from 17 February 2020.”

Now that the investigations have been completed and the results lifted, Hippo is back in trades.

Prior to the voluntary share suspension, the South African-based parent company THL, had in February 2019 appointed a new CEO Gavin Hudson whom the board of directors mandated to conduct an immediate and comprehensive strategic and financial review, the objective being to address debt levels and improve shareholders’ returns.

An initial investigation uncovered business and accounting gaps that required further investigation and as a result PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services (PwC), was appointed to undertake a thorough interrogation of the alleged financial shenanigans.

The resultant PwC report that ensued on November 29, 2019 implicated certain executives in undesirable accounting practices that among other things led to overstatements of certain assets and profits in THL’s financial statements. The subsidiary, Hippo Valley, was inevitably victim to the alleged malpractices and therefore subject to the report. The 2019 full year financials were published on December 20, 2019.

Further, half year 2020 financials for the subsidiary were released on February 14, 2020, qualifying the counter to have its shares trading on the ZSE again.