Boxing In Africa's Biggest Market

Competition in Africa’s leading stock exchange market is facing a difficult birth. Next year, South Africa could have three stock exchanges, but the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has taken the fight against the competition to court.

- Aviwe Mtila

Competition in Africa’s leading stock exchange market is facing a difficult birth. Next year, South Africa could have three stock exchanges, but the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has taken the fight against the competition to court.

The Financial Services Board (FSB) granted ZAR X a license to operate on the August 31, paving the way for the first new stock exchange in South Africa for over a century. In a Goliath versus David battle, the JSE filed an urgent application to the FSB Appeal Board to suspend its decision to grant ZAR X a stock exchange license. The Appeal Board dismissed the application. In a statement, the FSB said Judge LTC Harms, Deputy Chair of the FSB Appeal Board, stated that there was no evidence that the JSE would suffer harm or prejudice.

“He said the JSE’s application was based on the possibilities of harm to the financial system of the country and its investors, which was speculative,” the FSB said. As ZAR X prepares to launch, Etienne Nel is the man of the moment. He has the mammoth task of taking on Africa’s biggest stock exchange from a small office block in Bryanston, Johannesburg, far from the glamour and glass towers of the JSE in Sandton.

“I’ve basically spent my whole life as a stock broker and in 2011 I co-founded an OTC platform called Equity Express. The explosive growth that we had in that business showed us that there was a very distinct need in South Africa to actually have another stock exchange, away from the JSE, that gives investors another platform to transact on,” says Nel.