Bard Santner spreads tentacles to Vic Falls

BARD Santner Markets, a Harare-based banking and finance advisory firm, has expanded its operations to Victoria Falls after setting up Bard Santner Offshore Corporate Services to tap into the growth potential of the Victoria Falls Offshore Centre.

The Victoria Falls Offshore Centre is an emerging regional financial hub, which now hosts the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), a United States dollar-indexed bourse designed to offer stable trading currency and certainty, as its commercial heartbeat.

Bard’s expansion, which includes the opening of new offices in the resort town, follows the successful hosting of the capital markets conference in London, which was attended by companies, corporate executives and investors, from Zimbabwe and other countries.

The conference, organised by Bard and Financial Markets Indaba, opened new opportunities and doors for Bard Santner and other companies.

Bard Santner Markets executive director Tatenda Hungwe, who oversees the wealth management division, said: “Corporate services are the backbone of any financial centre. They provide the support structures that facilitate the functioning of the centre and enable the jurisdiction to flourish.”

He added “Coming from the capital markets conference held in London last month, a key lesson from international financiers is the need to engage and explore to unlock capital and new opportunities.

“In other words, we must tell our own story; focusing on the opportunities, which the country and ourselves can offer despite all the challenges we face while building trust and confidence in our markets.

“The Victoria Falls Offshore Financial Centre, for instance, is a unique value proposition, and we see it evolving into a competitive and attractive cross-border investment platform. We have positioned ourselves to participate in the initiative.

“That is why we have established the Bard Santner Offshore Corporate Services as a strategic financial services partner in the Victoria Falls Offshore Financial Centre.”

Vinod Bussawah, Bard’s Mauritius-based chairman, said the Victoria Falls financial hub initiative was a major step towards ensuring that Zimbabwe addresses some of its investment climate challenges to become more attractive to capital.

“Demand for capital across Africa is constrained by undeveloped local financial markets and sometimes unstable political and economic environments that make global investors are uncomfortable lending their money.

“From my experience in Mauritius, the development of the Victoria Falls Offshore Centre goes a long way to address some of those operational environment challenges to safeguard investment and ensure good returns,” he said.

“The steps to becoming a fully-fledged international centre are progressive. It is about having a robust regulatory and legal environment, instilling a culture of compliance, ensuring political stability, investment in infrastructure, ease of doing business and access to expertise.

“All this is transformative because it attracts long-term capital.”
Bard Santner, which strongly believes there is opportunity in every challenge, is the first financial institution to register and set-up in the Victoria Falls Offshore Centre.

Apart from being Zimbabwe’s premier tourism destination, with a global reputation and tourist source markets, Victoria Falls is slowly emerging as a true financial hub since the establishment of the special economic zone, the US dollar-anchored stock exchange and the broader strategy of making
it a regional financial centre in the mould of Mauritius.

Its objective is to offer banking, asset management, insurance or financial markets instruments with venues and supporting services for these activities.

The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), the heart of the new financial hub, was established in 2020 as a subsidiary of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange to operate in the tourism town’s special economic zone.

Legislation governing the operations of VFEX is contained in the following laws and measures: Securities and Exchange Act Chapter 24:25 and SI 100 of 2020, which governs the rules of an exchange; Exchange Control Directive RV 177/2020 and statutory instrument 196 of 2020, which regulates the
exchange control provisions surrounding transactions; Finance Act Chapter 23:04, which provides incentives such as exemption from capital gains and declaration of the Victoria Falls Special Economic Zone – SI 4 of 2022.

The ultimate objective is to make Victoria Falls a regional financial hub like Mauritius. Mauritius now boasts a track record of more than two decades in attracting cross-border business, investment and finance.

As an internationally recognised financial jurisdiction of major repute, it is home to international banks, legal firms, corporate services, investment funds and private equity funds.

Zimbabwe has ambitions of doing the same, with Victoria Falls, the country’s premier tourist destination, being positioned to become its financial services hub. Since its independence in 1968, Mauritius has successfully progressed from a sugar-based monoculture to a diversified economy that
includes manufacturing, tourism, finance, and a budding high-tech sector.

Mr Hungwe said: “Our expansion and new location provides, inter-alia, management, fund administration, trusteeship and other corporate administration and secretarial services in the Victoria Falls financial centre. To achieve this, we have professionals with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the latest rules and regulations governing businesses and other legal entities. We are well-equipped to take care of a wide variety of administrative and regulatory tasks on behalf of clients, while they concentrate on their businesses. As a result, we hope multinational corporations, large enterprises, and listed companies will soon be taking advantage of the new business dispensation created in Victoria Falls.

“As shown by our expansion strategy, we are ready to offer services on foreign direct investments, advice on taxation, structuring of cross-border investments, corporate structures for international trade, transfer pricing issues, intellectual property and royalties matters, compliance and due diligence requirements and cost-efficient international outsourcing and virtual offices.”

Mr Hungwe said Bard Santner Markets works with a local and global network of professionals, including accountants, lawyers, banks, trust companies, fiduciaries, independent financial advisors, and tax advisors.
“With our extensive network, we guarantee to provide the highest level of service locally and in other jurisdictions. Our corporate secretarial services include provision of registered office; registered agent; company secretary; local or non-resident directors; nominee shareholders; maintenance of statutory records and filing of returns among other things.” he said. -herald.co.zw