Today, London’s historic markets were opened by Her Excellency Nomatemba Tambo, South African High Commissioner; Rt Hon Harriett Baldwin MP, UK Minister for Africa; Nicky Newton-King, CEO of Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and Nikhil Rathi, CEO of LSE plc and Director of International Development, to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day, and mark the centenary of his birth.

Her Excellency Nomatemba Tambo, South African High Commissioner, said
‘’Today we celebrate the centenary of the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela and it is a great pleasure and honour to be hosted by the London Stock Exchange, who joins us in paying tribute to one of our greatest leaders. As we honour his life, we have an opportunity to reflect on how we can continue his legacy and continue working together.”

Honoured to open @LSEGplc London Stock Exchange alongside South African High Commissioner, Tembi Tambo @SAHC_UK to celebrate International Nelson Mandela Day #Mandela100UK ?? pic.twitter.com/SKtI0ObuwI

— Harriett Baldwin (@hbaldwin) July 18, 2018

Rt Hon Harriett Baldwin MP, UK Minister for Africa, said
“On the occasion of what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th Birthday, I am delighted to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s inspirational legacy alongside Her Excellency Tembi Tambo, South Africa’s High Commissioner to the UK. This comes at a time when the UK-South African relationship is blossoming, with trade and investment at its heart. The strength of our ties is mirrored in the close partnership between the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. We are immensely excited to see how UK-South Africa trade goes from strength to strength in the years to come.”

Nikhil Rathi, CEO of LSE plc, said
“London Stock Exchange Group is honoured to mark the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth and celebrate his enduring legacy. Today’s event showcases the success of the UK-South African economic and financial partnership. South Africa is a hub of entrepreneurship, and 53 South African high-growth enterprises are featured in LSEG’s recent ‘Companies to Inspire Africa’ publication. London Stock Exchange Group is proud to support eight South African companies dual-listed in London and Johannesburg. We provide Johannesburg Stock Exchange our world-leading technology and index services, and reinforce South Africa’s robust capital market infrastructure through our post-trade services for South African financial institutions. We are committed to building on this successful relationship, and to promoting entrepreneurship, successful capital markets, and shared prosperity.”

Nicky Newton-King, CEO of Johannesburg Stock Exchange, said
“The JSE has a long history of partnering with the LSEG in relation to indices and in relation to technology, both of which extend for more than a decade. We look forward to this continuing for many years.”

This Market Open is part of a number of events marking the Centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth.

London Stock Exchange Group South Partnership with Johannesburg Stock Exchange and South Africa

• Technology:

LSEG through MillenniumIT has been providing the JSE with its trading system for equities since the migration from TradeElect in July 2012. The project significantly reduced latency for local JSE trading members compared to TradeElect which was hosted in London. The location of the platform being in Johannesburg allowed the JSE to expand its offering and allow for a new colocation offering to the market. In late 2015 the JSE commenced with building its integrated trading and clearing platform that will migrate the derivatives market onto the same MillenniumIT platform to improve performance on the derivatives platform and allow trading algorithms to operate with the same latency on both asset classes. The derivatives platform is due to launch later this year. In addition to trading, MillenniumIT also provides real-time Millennium Surveillance for monitoring the market.

• Indexes:

FTSE Russell, the index company that is part of the London Stock Exchange Group, has since 2002 partnered with JSE to provide index calculation for JSE, giving investors tools to make informed investment decisions. This provides additional visibility and liquidity for companies listed on JSE.
There are 23 exchange-traded funds listed on JSE using FTSE/ JSE information, with AUM of $1.5bn; and the largest fund has over $500million of assets under management, which provides investors additional tools for investing in a range of companies listed on JSE, and contributes to deepening the South African market
FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index Series represents to investors, the performance of South African companies that meet environmental social and governance performance thresholds, and helps these companies attract additional investment.

• Clearing and post-trade:

LSEG’s clearing business, LCH, has a strong relationship with South African regulatory authorities, and LCH is partnering with many of the leading South African financial institutions in clearing Interest Rate Swap transactions in the South African Rand, which supports the financial markets infrastructure.

• Support for High-growth South African Companies

There are 53 South African SMEs featured in LSEG’s Companies to Inspire Africa 2017 publication, showcasing the strength and depth of the domestic SME market.
13 South African high-growth companies have raised capital or announced a significant corporate development in the last year.

• Companies with equity listed:

32 companies that are dual listed on London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges; these 32 companies have a combined market value of $526.9 billion
21 South African companies, or companies with their primary business operations in South Africa, are listed in London, with a combined market cap of $128.4 billion; 8 of these are dual-listed on LSE and JSE.

• Companies with bonds listed:

There are 30 active bonds from companies that are from South Africa or have their primary operations in South Africa, listed on LSE, which have raised USD 17.5 billion equivalent, in 5 currencies, from 8 issuers, which include banks and financial firms, metals & mining companies, and railroad companies
London is also supporting the internationalisation of the South African currency: London Stock Exchange has 28 active bonds issued in South African Rand (ZAR) from 11 issuers that are incorporated in 6 separate countries, that have raised $9.4bn equivalent.

Source: LSE Group