Pretty good for a 2-yr-old: A2X celebrates R2 trillion market cap, R2 billion trades in 2 years
CAPE TOWN – South African stock exchange A2X Markets launched on October 6 with three listings and four of the industry’s leading brokers on board. After just two years, A2X boasts a combined market cap of about R2 trillion with 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. It was also recently named best new stock exchange in Africa in the 2019 Global Banking & Finance Awards.
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 says 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 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.
Source: iol.co.za