Infront Opens Two Offices in South Africa

Officials say Infront has "ramped up" expansion plans for South Africa after growing a steady customer base for its data in the country through third-party vendors. Infront has been operating in the South African market since 2009, and says it believes that the country is an appealing market for European investors as it can be used as a launchpad to enter other countries in Africa.

The two offices, which were officially opened on Nov. 1, will enable Infront to offer bespoke solutions to buy- and sell-side firms, as well as localized support to clients directly. The offices will initially contain sales and support staff. Officials say the number of staff hasn't been finalized, but that the vendor is in the process of building up these two offices, and plans to hire more staff.

To support local and international investors, the vendor has added a range of local data to its terminal, including full-depth, real-time data from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and its South African Futures Exchange (Safex) derivatives subsidiary, as well as JSE SENS news and full macro-economic African data, along with South African fundamental data from the last 10 years.

As an introductory offer for South African market participants, Infront will offer its terminal free-of-charge until year-end.

"We have experienced an increase in demand for our modern and flexible market data terminal. Being well established in this market, with a substantial customer base, we have seen the need to open two, local new offices, says Infront founder and chief executive Kristian Nesbak in a statement. "We see a huge potential for our services and are excited about our plans to break through in this market."

Infront has also hired Renier Linde as managing director of Infront in South Africa, and Timothy Singh as head of sales for South Africa, to lead the expansion operation. They report to Nesbak and head of sales Joachim Rosli, respectively.

Linde was most recently executive head of sales and marketing at South African data provider Inet BFA, which was acquired by Australian data and technology provider Iress in September. Prior to that, Linde was senior account manager, and then marketing at manager at I-Net Bridge, which was bought by McGregor BFA in November 2013 (IMD, Nov. 15, 2013), and became Inet BFA.

Singh also joins from Inet BFA, where he was business development executive. Before that, he held a number of roles in FX solutions and trading, including serving as a derivatives trading consultant at financial spread-betting operation ETX Capital, and as a financial services sales at Trader24.

The Johannesburg and Cape Town locations are Infront's first offices outside Europe. The vendor has presences in the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.