Pico Announces Expansion into Johannesburg, South Africa

NEW YORK and LONDON, June 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pico, a leading financial infrastructure services provider, has connected directly to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Pico is pleased to announce the extension of our robust global network offering and colocation footprint to Africa. As of May 2018, we are now connected to Africa's largest and fastest exchange in Johannesburg, offering a unique market opportunity to our clients with direct connectivity to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) via low latency, resilient and entirely diverse connectivity from London, as well as local colocation services in South Africa.

Looking for a highly performant and trusted vendor, our clients asked Pico to provide the most reliable access in the market to JSE's trading engine. We responded by expanding our proprietary network, PicoNet, to Johannesburg. We can now offer our clients the flexibility to connect directly to JSE via a Pico Point of Presence (PoP) in London or to enjoy the benefits of an ultra-low latency profile by colocating directly with Pico in the JSE datacenter in Sandton, Johannesburg. Whether native market data delivery or a completely managed end-to-end service, Pico offers clients the flexibility of multiple options to meet client needs. By colocating, we also support local broker connectivity in the JSE facility for non-locally based firms; and for those firms with South African entities, we offer order routing capabilities directly into the JSE matching engine.

"Time and time again, electronic trading firms look to Pico to provide the best infrastructure and network connections available in the market. We saw this as an opportunity to create a new standard of excellence in trading at the JSE and are thrilled to be a premier International Service Provider to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It's a natural extension for Pico and the cornerstone for additional international expansion in the year to come," said Anne Petersen, Global Head of Sales.

"Clients demand faster execution speeds and the lowest-latency available to ensure enhanced responses to market movements and deployment of their trading strategies. Connecting to the JSE's colocation facility allows for seamless access to the continent's leading exchange. The international demand to trade the SA markets is constantly increasing and we are delighted to have such a high caliber infrastructure service provider such as Pico come into our market. We are sure they will have a meaningful impact by assisting the international community in trading our markets through their robust, secure and latency sensitive network," said Donna Nemer, Director Capital Markets at the JSE.

About Pico
Pico offers premium technology hosting and managed services, specializing in trading technology via Pico Quantitative Trading LLC (based in the U.S.), Pico Global Ltd., a private limited company registered in England and Wales, under company number 09365923, with a registered office at Paternoster House, 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, London, England, EC4M 8AB, and Pico (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. incorporated as a private company limited by shares in Singapore. Registration No. 201700451C, with an office at One Raffles Place Tower 2, Singapore 048616. To learn more, visit: www.picotrading.com. 

About the JSE
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is based in South Africa where it has operated as a market place for the trading of financial products for 130 years. It connects buyers and sellers in equity, derivative and debt markets. The JSE is one of the top 20 exchanges in the world in terms of market capitalisation and is a member of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) and holds the chairmanship of the Association of Futures Markets (AFM). The JSE offers a fully electronic, efficient, secure market with world class regulation, trading and clearing systems, settlement assurance and risk management. The JSE is recognised as a CCP by its peers and regulators (international and domestic) and we help formulate responses on international regulation. www.jse.co.za.

SOURCE Pico