OVERVIEW
Banking and financial services 120 years on, Cape Town has a stock exchange again.
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everal alternative stock exchanges have opened in South Africa recently, and one of them has moved to Cape Town. Previously known as 4AX, the rebranded bourse has fittingly chosen The Woodstock Exchange (pictured) for its offices. A short-lived exchange opened in 1901 in Cape Town because the Anglo-Boer War made Johannesburg uncomfortable for traders. The Cape Town Stock Exchange, which aims to attract African listings and to take advantage of the Cape’s specialisation in technology, is the only other South African exchange (apart from the JSE) with both equity and debt listing licences. The company announced that it planned to double its market capitalisation by early 2022. At the time of the announcement, the exchange had eight listings and a market capitalisation of just over R7-billion. Of the other new exchanges, Equity Express Securities Exchange (EESE) trades in Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) while ZARX targets companies that are not listed elsewhere. A2X had 56 listings and a market cap of close to R4-trillion in October 2021, when Tiger Brands announced that they would do a secondary listing on the exchange. The JSE is the world’s 19th biggest exchange and nearly 400 companies are listed on the JSE or AltX, the JSE-owned exchange for smaller companies. The launch by Sanlam Investments of a Sustainable Infrastructure Fund is a sign of the times. The South African state has promised a huge infrastructure drive but in the context of climate change caused by the use of fossil fuels, the investment community is increasingly putting emphasis on sustainability. Sanlam Group will invest R6-billion in the fund and aims to attract a further R5-billion from institutional investors. Investments will be made in housing, transport, health, water, waste, communication, conventional energy and renewable energy, a fast-growing sector with enormous potential. Naspers Foundry is one of several investment funds looking for opportunities in the financial sector. Insurance technology is of particular interest, together with credit services and payment systems.
ONLINE RESOURCES Financial Sector Conduct Authority: www.fsca.co.za Insurance Institute of South Africa: www.iisa.co.za South African Institute for Chartered Accountants: www.saica.co.za
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SECTOR INSIGHT Renewable energy funding is a fast-growing sector.
Credit: Kristof Basson Architects Capital Appreciation, which is part-owned by the Public Investment Corporation, is already invested in a software developer, a credit card payment terminal provider and has R500million available for further investments. African Rainbow Capital has a stake in the investment company and is the owner of TymeBank, which received a banking licence in 2017 and is expanding rapidly. Discovery Bank officially launched in March 2019 and is experiencing rapid growth with deposits of R3.7-billion. Discovery Bank is applying the behavioural model it uses in its health business to reward good financial behaviour. Another relatively new bank is Capitec. Investment holding company PSG has reduced its holding in Capitec Bank from 32% to 4%, earning about R4-billion by selling those shares. ■ SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2022
