Attracting new companies to list on a stock exchange is vital for a country’s financial markets as it boosts market liquidity, diversity and investor confidence. New listings provide more investment opportunities, enhancing the depth and resilience of the local market.

A broader range of companies across sectors helps reduce systemic risk, ensuring stability in volatile economic conditions. Additionally, new listings increase the market’s global competitiveness, attracting foreign investors and capital inflows. This, in turn, supports economic growth, job creation and innovation, fostering a more dynamic and robust financial ecosystem that benefits the country’s broader economy.

Dual listings, where a company is listed on more than one exchange, help enhance investor confidence by increasing access to different international markets. They allow investors to trade shares across different markets and currencies, offering more liquidity and flexibility. This broader exposure attracts even more diverse investment, bolstering overall trust in the exchange.

‘The JSE is an international trading venue and we have deep and liquid capital markets. Our exchange offers great emerging markets play, and as our country ramps up for a period of unprecedented growth, it’s important we give our investors an expanded universe to invest in,’ says Maurice Madiba, the JSE’s Head of Primary Markets: Capital Markets.

For a decade the JSE has had a fasttrack listing route in place, which offers an expedited approval process and reduced listing fees, and minimises the resource requirements typically associated with listing.

The fast-track listing process allows listed companies on a particular accredited exchange to seek a listing on the JSE Main Board or AltX without the need for a pre-listing statement but rather with a pre-listing announcement. This framework still ensures that investors have access to relevant information about the company in order for them to make informed investment decisions. This initiative streamlines the dual-listing process, leveraging the extensive market information available for these companies in their primary markets.

‘For fast-track listing a company doesn’t need to publish a prospectus or circular, or obtain shareholder approval, but it must have been listed on the primary exchange for at least 12 months. Once an application is approved a company needs to publish general information via SENS. Also, importantly, Strate, our country’s clearing house, has implemented CSD-to-CSD links [central securities depository], making the share register management and cross-border movement of shares more efficient from a cost- and time-wise point of view than before. Where previously it took two to eight days to move shares between registers, it’s now a 20-minute process,’ says Madiba.

So far the JSE has accredited 18 exchanges, and it’s now ramping up the programme to attract more listings. This approach is part of the JSE’s ongoing effort to enhance accessibility and efficiency for international companies.

‘We need to attract companies from all over the world and we are doing a good job with exchanges within our trading time zone – that is Europe and the US,’ says Madiba. ‘Asia is an important market for us but it’s unique because by the time their markets close, ours has just opened. How best to deal with that is to have shares inwardly listed. Currently Singapore and Hong Kong are on the accredited-exchange list, and we will continue to communicate these benefits to their listed companies, especially those with Africa operations.’

Integrating global financial markets is key to fostering new listings and offerings to the local market. ‘Apart from the above mentioned, which joined the list in the last couple of years, Tadawul [Saudi Arabia] and all the Euronext Exchanges such as Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and so on have joined, too. There is still a world of opportunity for accredited exchanges.’

By Patrick Farrell
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