Foreign investors trapped in Zimbabwe as citizens flood the stock market

Foreign investors like Franklin Templeton, JP Morgan Chase &Co. and Allan Gray are stuck in Zimbabwe with no means of moving their funds out of the country. The foreign currency shortages and the introduction of bond notes have left investors with no means of repatriating their funds. Locals who are fearful of the return of the hyperinflation period have fled to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The benchmark equity index has tripled since the first batch was issued in November, including a 62 percent jump in September as 300 million worth of bond notes were released into the money supply

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, which owns shares in beer brewer Delta Corp said:

There is a fear that Zimbabwe is returning to its previous days of excessive currency printing. There is a real problem of currency repatriation

Allan Gray fund manager Nick Ndiritu added:

We will continue to focus on the fundamentals, even if the market doesn’t.

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It’s a very unpredictable environment and it’s difficult to say what it’ll be like a year or two down the line.

More: Bloomberg