The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has lifted Hippo Valley Estates Limited’s suspension on trading its shares on the local bourse.

The development comes after the sugar producer finally published its FY2019 financials.

“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,” said ZSE chief executive Justin Bgoni.

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

“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.”

Hippo Valley will be able to trade on the ZSE from today.

The stock exchange effected the suspension in August 2019 pending finalisation of investigations by Hippo’s South African-headquartered parent firm Tongaat Hullet Limited (THL), as well as publication of the company’s FY2019 financials.

The parent firm’s investigations came on the back of 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 irregularities.

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.