Three years since launching in SA, independent stock exchange
A2X Marketshas 37 companies listed on its trading platform, which have a combined market cap of R2.1 trillion.
Founded in 2017 by a group of funding shareholders with experience in financial markets and technology, A2X offers a multilateral trading facility styled exchange platform, which focuses on the top 100 listed companies on the JSE.
The company competes directly with the JSE, by providing an affordable alternative platform for companies or issuers of exchange traded products to secondary list and trade shares.
The independent stock exchange, which focuses on providing an efficient and cost-effective trading option, says the costs of transacting on its exchange are significantly lower than current trading costs in SA.
The company, which has recorded about 80 000 trades with a combined value of R5.7 billion, says its digital drive and innovation strategy helped it provide
a single global market for the trading of securities, assist in the monitoring of real-time stock performance to provide more liquidity, and ultimately provide a technologically-efficient onlinetrading platform for users.A2X licenses its exchange technologies from AquisTechnologies, a UK-based Pan-European software and technology division of Aquis Exchange, an exchange that is capable of processing 64 000 messages per second on the trading online platform.
“The exciting thing about our exchange is that it is largely based on technology. As a fintech business, we relyheavily on the latest low-latency technology, which is far quicker and much more agile than what is available in the market, at an affordable cost,” said Kevin Brady, CEO of A2X, in an interview with ITWeb.
“A2X uses Aquis Technologies’ high-performance online trading platform which operates across 14 Pan-European markets currently. The core system includes the matching engine, the surveillance system as well as a bespoke clearing system which enables full flexibility of asset class, market structure, lit or dark book, order types and trading protocols for traders and portfolio
managers.”
The other three components of A2X’s technology, according to Brady, consist of a member client record and allocation system, which allows brokers to undertake agency trades on behalf of their clients; and theAquis Market Surveillance solution, whichmonitors all types of market abuse, including illegal practices that may result from algorithmic and high-frequency trading.
A2X also deployed an advanced trading interface and market router, offered by technology company Iress, to provide brokers with a way to optimise order execution in minimal time, across multiple markets.
“We are thrilled at the development of the business which has grown from the challenger to a 130-year monopoly, to being named the fastest growing SA stock exchange by the 2020 Global Banking & Finance Awards. Through these technologies, some of the challenges brought about by legacy broker infrastructure, which was designed for a single exchange, have now been addressed,”noted Brady.
In 2018, A2X partnered with Africa's vendor-neutral data centre Teraco to bring its trading online platform closer to clients. By hosting A2X's primary data centre at Teraco, the company was able to offer clients connectivity options, including the low-latency option of co-locating their systems with A2X.
Some of the companies that have listed on the exchange include Huge Group,Mr Price Group,Standard Bank Group, Naspers, Sygnia andSantam.
“Trading on A2X has benefits for issuers as well as brokers. A secondary listing on A2X complements an issuer’s primary listing as it provides its investors with a choice of venue on which to transact and at a lower cost. Many companies are going the extra mile for their shareholders and also support the development of a more progressive and competitive marketplace in South Africa,” concluded Brady.
