JSE Limited, the operator of Africa's largest stock exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), has acquired a minority stake in UK fintech, Globacap via a £4 million (R82.7 million) investment in the firm.
The JSE says it entered the transaction with Globacap so as to facilitate a digital private placements platform and registry service which will boost and digitalize fund raising for infrastructure finance for SMEs.
Globacap is a private placement and capital management platform that digitally administrates over £1 billion of private shares and debt instruments for 60 companies and over 8 000 shareholders worldwide in 35 countries. Its unique distributed ledger technology allows digital registrar services to be reflected in real-time.
According to the JSE, the investment in Globacap will be funded from the exchange’s existing cash reserves and is expected to be finalized in quarter 1 of 2021. Meanwhile, the transaction is subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions, including an approval by relevant South African and UK authorities.