While the Australian Securities Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange have been the major exchanges for miners to list on in the past, the JSE is looking to step out from the shadows of its bigger brothers.
The exchange is currently on a recruitment drive to attract Australian miners who are focused on Africa, with JSE chief executive officer Russell Loubser to present at the Paydirt Africa DownUnder Conference in Perth later this week.
Speaking to MiningNews.net today, Loubser said his visit to Australia was to provide junior miners with an insight into the benefits of dual listing on the JSE, especially if they had assets in Africa.
“The message that we will give is that the Johannesburg stock exchange offers a world-class service for any resource company considering raising capital or having its shares more actively traded in South Africa,” he said.
The JSE is South Africa’s only full-service securities exchange and is one of the top 20 exchanges in the world in terms of market capitalisation.
Loubser said junior miners tended to use London’s Alternative Investment Market and the venture capital division of the TSX.
“They have tended to use that more, probably because in the past the JSE couldn’t offer a full service, but now the JSE can,” he said.
“We have got the full suite of products. We not only have the equities, we have got financial derivatives, plus commodity derivatives, plus the fact that we have also recently purchased the fixed interest exchange.
“From a capital raising point of view, virtually every instrument that a junior miner might need in order to raise cash is available on the JSE.”
He also pointed out that AIM – once seen by Australians as a sure-fire source of capital – had been a let-down for resource plays looking to raise capital.
“I would think it is fair to say that the experience companies have had on AIM is that AIM hasn’t lived up to expectations,” Loubser said.
“That doesn’t mean that AIM is bad; a little bit of restructuring is needed, but certainly the feedback that we are constantly getting is that the JSE can offer a better service and a better value proposition than AIM can.”
Loubser joined the JSE in January 1997 as executive president designate and assumed office as executive president in February that year. After the restructuring of the JSE in December 2000, Loubser became CEO.
Loubser has been responsible for the strategic repositioning of the exchange, including its acquisition of the South African Futures Exchange.
Loubser’s presentation, called An African value proposition, will take place this Thursday morning at the Africa DownUnder Conference in Perth.
