Zimbabwean tycoon John Moxon’s Tanganda Tea Company reschedules listing for February

Tanganda Tea Company, the tea production unit of Meikles Limited, has rescheduled its planned unbundling and subsequent listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange for Feb. 3.

Tanganda Tea Company is Zimbabwe’s largest distributor of bulk and packaged tea. The agro-allied company operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meikles Limited, a leading conglomerate controlled by Zimbabwean businessman John Moxon.

In line with the recent development, the board of the conglomerate rescheduled the planned listing after the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) granted the tea business a tax waiver to facilitate Tanganda’s listing on the local bourse in February.

The group noted that the tax relief provided under the country’s Capital Gains Tax Act will apply to only 51.39-percent of the issued shares in its agro-allied unit, leaving a residual capital gains tax amount to be paid on the unbundling of the business.

In an effort to complete the planned unbundling and the listing, the directors have authorized Meikles to pay the residual capital gains tax liability, as talks to finalize the assessment of the capital gains tax liability prior to the listing of the business proceed to an advanced stage.

While commenting on the material impact of the delay in the demerger and the subsequent listing of the tea business, the board noted that the deferment to complete the transaction only affected the implementation and listing dates advised as per the notice dated Nov. 26, 2021.

With all conditions precedent having been met, the tentative implementation and listing dates are Feb. 1 and 3, respectively.

The recent move to unbundle and list the tea business will see the conglomerate set up a dedicated stand-alone agro-allied company with a core focus to create value through its operations and investments within the diversified agricultural sector in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe-based conglomerate posted ZWL1.64 billion ($5.08 million) in profit in the first half of its current financial year, as earnings surged by more than three-fold in the period under review.

It also declared its first interim dividend of ZWL0.80 ($0.0025) per share, amounting to ZWL209 million ($650,000).