Just as Zimbabwean businessmen like John Moxon and Zinona Koudounaris have seen their fortunes grow by millions of dollars in recent times, multimillionaire businessman Paddy Zhanda has seen his wealth surge by millions of dollars thanks to his stake in Masimba Holdings.
The sustained buying pressure and bullish sentiment on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, fueled by investor reactions to the impressive results published by listed companies, increased the value of Zhanda’s stake in Masimba Holdings by more than ZWL480 million ($1.5 million) over the past 71 days.
The increase in the market value of his 8.08-percent stake in the group, which amounts to 19,515,019 ordinary shares, was driven by a double-digit increase in the share price of the Harare-based holding company.
Masimba Holdings shares were trading at ZWL70 ($0.22) as of press time on May 6, representing a double-digit increase of 55 percent over the stock’s closing price of ZWL45 ($0.14) 71 days ago.
As a result, Zhanda’s stake in Masimba Holdings has increased in value from ZWL879.17 billion ($2.73 million) on Feb. 24 to ZWL1.37 billion ($4.24 million) at the time of writing. This equates to a total profit of ZWL487.9 million ($1.52 million) for the Zimbabwean businessman.
Masimba Holdings is a well-established Zimbabwean group that offers engineering and infrastructure solutions to the agricultural, commercial, corporate, housing, mining, public and water sectors.
It operates through three operating segments, Masimba Construction Zimbabwe, Proplastics, and Property Development, with a consolidated revenue of ZWL7.36 billion ($23 million) in 2021.
The surge in the value of Masimba Holdings shares in recent times can be linked to investor buying interest after it posted an 87.2-percent increase in profit at the end of 2021 from ZWL526.24 million ($1.63 million) to ZWL985.12 million ($3.05 million) despite a 12-percent decrease in revenue.
