It's Zambia, not Zimbabwe (as far as I know, Airtel have no operations in Zimbabwe) and so far, the Lusaka stock exchange has objected to these plans.
The bottom line is, though, whether and under what circumstances a delisting is possible in Zambia. It's irrelevant whether that's Airtel or anyone else. The regulatory framework must treat all listed companies equally.
If Airtel delist, they will try to buy back the shares - an initially
offer has been rejected by the minority shareholders:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-30/minority-shareholders-may-stall-bharti-airtel-s-delisting-of-zambian-unit.html. This article also tells you that Bharti now own 97% of the Zambian Airtel, so there's hardly any mass retail share ownership and not that many 'common' Zimbabweans (or rather Zambians) who 'benefit' from the listed company are the shareholders and who have contributed to the company's pofits in any tangible way by being clients.
More generally, you might want to check out the percentage of any listed company owned by institutional investors and whether the exchange allows foreign investment - in that case, there's probably a number of shareholders that actually contributed nothing to the company's profits either.
Airtel are in the process of having Celtel Zimbabwe de-listed from the Zimbabwe stock exchange, this might not seem like much but in reality it is a reflection of Airtels profit sharing strategy.The effect of this action is that the common Zimbabweans will not benefit from the profits of the company even though they will have been generated locally. Instead the government of Mugabe will receive large volumes of money through corporate tax.Lets appreciate the fact that Safaricom at least allows us to share in their profits through dividend as shareholders.RegardsRobert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
KenyaTel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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