South African stock exchange A2X reveals future plans
South African stock exchange A2X Markets says it now has a combined market cap of about R2 trillion, and has processed R2 billion in trades in just two years – having launched in October 2017.
The group says it has nine approved brokers, including five of the six largest brokers in South Africa.
Real estate investment trust, Fairvest Property Holdings, listed on A2X on 31 October, bringing the number of listings on the exchange to 32.
Kevin Brady, CEO of A2X said: “We are very excited about how the business has developed over the past two years. Starting an exchange to compete with an incumbent that has been a monopoly for over 130 years was never going to be easy but through the use of technology, an experienced team, support from many industry players and perseverance, we have managed to overcome the many barriers to entry.
“Testament to this is that from inception to the end of October, we had recorded over 29,000 trades with a combined value of some R2 billion.”
Brady said that one of the major challenges that A2X has faced is broker infrastructure, which was inadequate for a multi-venue environment.
“Integrating into legacy systems geared for a single exchange environment is challenging. However, we are pleased to report that many brokers are re-engineering their systems as they see the value of doing so and the problems of being tied to only one exchange.”
To help overcome many of the infrastructure obstacles, A2X said it has a joint venture with a local tech firm to develop a post trade system. “This will make it both cost effective and easy to trade client orders across both markets. The system is being rolled out to select brokers and is expected to be in full production by the first quarter of next year,” it said.
A2X offers an alternative platform for companies or issuers of exchange traded products to secondary list their shares or units for trade. There is no cost, risk or additional regulation to do so.
“The pipeline of potential companies listing is strong and we are pleased at the high quality, high profile companies which have and are considering listing. We were clear from inception that the A2X model aligns with the objective of growing and improving the overall market in South Africa – lowering costs, improving liquidity and being both innovative and responsive to market needs,” Brady said.
In terms of the focus for the next two years, he said that A2X will grow is product range, continue to offer investors an alternative low-cost venue on which to transact while progressing capital markets in South Africa.
A2X has listings from many sectors, including media, mining, banking, property, retail, pharmaceutical, FMCG, financial services, healthcare, insurance, mining, telecommunications, ETFs and ETNs.
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