GMEX Group has acquired a 25% stake, through its GMEX Technologies (GMEX TECH) subsidiary, in the Mauritius-based ALTX Africa Group Ltd (ALTX).
ALTX wholly owns ALT-Xchange Ltd (ALTX Uganda) and ALT-X Clearing Ltd (ALTX Clearing). ALTX is also in discussions with other strategic partners with a view to syndicating additional equity stakes to further drive its growth strategy.
This acquisition extends the current successful partnership between GMEX TECH, and ALTX. GMEX TECH is providing its leading edge ForumMatch exchange trading platform, ForumDetect market surveillance system and ForumTrader workstation to ALTX Uganda as a fully managed "Exchange-in-a-box" hosted solution interconnecting ALTX Uganda to GMEX's infrastructure in London, enabling access to international vendors and clients. The partnership will also provide ALTX with GMEX exchange business expertise.
ALTX Uganda’s exchange application was approved by the securities regulator in Uganda in March 2014 and it will be the first in a series of steps to establish a network of fully interconnected exchanges in Africa enabled by common exchange trading, clearing and settlement technology. The technology will also allow access to securities trading inside and outside Africa.
ALTX Uganda is now in the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase with a number of African and International trading firms connecting in readiness for launch targeted by 1 May 2015 with a focus on primary and secondary market cash equities and bonds. ALTX is also working with major banks to develop an Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) business in major commodity and equity offerings.
“This investment in ALTX highlights our focus on African financial markets development to aid economic growth through a sustainable partnership driven model that is very different to the customer-supplier approach of our competitors. This extends our current relationship, which is providing ALTX with the exchange technology infrastructure, network and business expertise to become the most technically advanced securities market operator in Africa,” said Hirander Misra, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of GMEX Group, who has been appointed Non-Executive Director to the ALTX and ALTX Uganda Boards and is also in the process of being appointed to the ALTX Clearing Board.
“With the GMEX Group investment, we continue to lead the pan-African development and interconnection of Africa’s securities markets to attract global liquidity and extended market opportunities with best-in-class technology,” says Joseph S Kitamirike, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of ALTX. He added, “We are delighted to have successfully completed the first phase of our implementation of the exchange technology suite provided by GMEX TECH as a fully managed service and we are well on the way with the UAT, taking us towards our goal of launching ALTX Uganda by 1 May 2015."
