Securities Africa in growth mode

Foreign interest in Africa is booming and banks great and small are jostling to get a piece of the action. Size is definitely not everything in this increasingly competitive market: local knowledge and expertise are even more important, as is finding the right talent.

Securities Africa, a Pan-African specialist broker, is going for growth and expanding its research and trading teams to further increase its presence and market share. "We are ready to expand and we focus on finding the right people," says Michael Barnes, managing director and head of sales and trading.

The privately-owned company, founded in 2002, covers every market across the African continent, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and has just opened a new, bigger office in Johannesburg as its headquarters.

"Africa has become a global focus so it's incredibly difficult to find the right person," says Barnes. With the increase in competition and foreign interest there is a danger of everyone fishing in the same crowded pond, says Phryne Williams, managing director of Capital Assignments, a specialist financial services recruiting firm in Johannesburg: "Companies should start investing more in re-stocking the stockbrokers with fresh talent. That may take 18 months to two years to show up on the ratings, but it will have a far more positive long-term effect that the whole market will benefit from."

According to Barnes, who spent eight years as a fund manager in London before moving to the continent, South Africa gives a choice which is lacking in the rest of Africa: "South Africa has 3,000 brokers: we are based in Johannesburg because here you get a good quality of employee," he says.

New hires on the sales trading desk include Gareth Taylor, who has joined from RMB Investment Bank and Neil Barnard, who previously worked for PSGKonsult Stockbroking, Global Trader and AngloRand. Securities Africa is now looking for "strategic hires on the research side".

The "right people", for Barnes, are those "who are able to talk to international clients, as 95% of our clients are out of Africa, but who are also willing to come along for a ride which will not always be smooth. Africa is not for the faint-hearted".