We began 2025 with a sense of optimism, borne out in the first quarter when SA successfully hosted the G20 finance meeting as a precursor to the main heads of state summit in Johannesburg later this year. However, since then, global geopolitical tensions have heightened with sweeping tariffs applied by the US on goods from all trading economies, with SA potentially facing a 31% tariff on its exports to the US. The announcement has disrupted the global trading system and led to significant economic implications worldwide. The recently announced tariffs are reshaping international trade dynamics, and countries across the globe are adapting their strategies to navigate the new economic landscape.
We live and work in a multi-polar world that requires multilateral solutions. This is a complex world, with fault lines between north and south, east and west and even within those blocs. We need a new paradigm for the new world order to facilitate and enhance global trade. The G20 (and the associated B20) offers SA a priceless opportunity to help steer this process as we redraw trade highways, while showcasing SA as a growth engine and a country with growth opportunities.
We believe that blended finance, combining concessional, private and public capital, is key to unlocking SOE funding and infrastructure at scale. A great example is the JSE’s continued efforts to support and help unlock funding for SA’s industrial development. The bourse assisted the Minister of Electricity and Energy, and the Minister of Finance to convene the third Transmission Infrastructure Investment Forum at the start of April to engage sector stakeholders on government and business collaboration to ensure SA’s long-term energy security. Discussions highlighted the importance of private sector investment into energy generation and actions to mitigate the ailing transmission grid capacity in meeting global decarbonisation targets. The JSE will continue to work very closely with the Minister of Electricity and Energy and National Treasury to lay the groundwork for special purpose vehicles with strong governance frameworks and sustainable revenue models for entities, such as the National Transmission Company of South Africa.
In February, we hosted our equity market structure conference, JSE SA Trade Connect, for the buy-and-sell side in Cape Town. This is an annual opportunity for the bourse to bring key players together to focus on vital issues and emerge with solutions and innovative ideas that can collectively enhance our capital markets ecosystem. The JSE SA Trade Connect conference, much like the transmission infrastructure investment forum, demonstrates our dedication to playing a convenor role. By doing this, we aim to bring together markets and stakeholders alike to unearth lasting and impactful solutions for the benefit of our markets and the country at large.
A key driver for the JSE is our constant quest to innovate as we ambitiously build a future-fit exchange. The first quarter of 2025 was marked by the introduction of JSE-FIX, designed in collaboration with leading financial tech firm Rapid Addition. This order routing hub provides efficient, vendor-neutral counterparty connectivity for domestic and international asset managers, integrating seamlessly with their execution management processes, enabling faster and cheaper access to capital markets. JSE-FIX is the latest addition to our expansive suite of products and services and follows closely on the introduction of Colo 2.0, our low-latency Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) colocation service.
We also observed an uptick in structured products as we welcomed the listing of 16 new exchange traded notes through First National Bank, providing exposure to high-growth global companies across a diverse range of industries, from pharmaceuticals to AI technology, luxury goods and tourism. March also saw the introduction of RealFin’s actively managed exchange traded fund, while Reitway launched its Global Property Income Prescient exchange traded fund (ETF), bringing the total number of ETFs on the JSE to 119, with a total market cap of R230.7 billion. These listings underscore our commitment to providing a platform for diverse investment products that enable market access and increased investor participation.
We have laid a very good foundation for 2025 and can look forward with increased confidence to the rest of the year.
