Written by Andrew England | From FT

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has launched an initiative to attract companies listed in London, New York, Toronto and Sydney to dual list in South Africa as it seeks to reinforce its position as the continent’s top exchange.

The “Fast-Track” initiative is designed to cut red tape and streamline the process, reducing the costs and time taken for a dual listing by enabling companies to leverage off the processes they went through with their primary listings.

Sirius Real Estate, an AIM-listed property company, last week became the first firm to use the new process when it listed on the JSE’s junior board, the Alternative Exchange (ALTx), last week. The JSE has attracted 22 listings so far this year — the first time it has had more than 20 listings in a year since the 2008 global economic crisis — and six of them have been foreign companies.

The JSE — which already counts international groups such as British American Tobacco, SABMiller and Glencore among its listings — hopes it will appeal to companies looking to access South Africa’s deep and sophisticated investor base, as well as those seeking to tap into Africa’s fast-growing economies.

Although South Africa’s economy is struggling with tepid growth, the $1,000bn JSE is by far the continent’s largest and best regulated market. In addition, a number of the world’s fastest growing economies, including Ethiopia and Rwanda, are in Africa, which has been attracting increasing international investor attention, particularly for sectors such as natural resources and consumer industries.

“What we are finding is entities are coming to the JSE to list here to raise capital for them to grow in the rest of Africa, so it’s almost a gateway play,” said Donna Oosthuyse, director of capital markets at the JSE. “We have really endeavored to position the JSE as a competitive venue for listing.”

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