Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Institutional multi-asset broker INTL FCStone (NASDAQ:INTL) has plans to expand its presence in 28 African countries, covering all major nations across the continent, except Somalia, online news media Finance Feeds said on Wednesday.
The company intends to leverage its relationships with African banks and counterparties that have been fostered over years.
“We don’t actually have a physical presence in Africa, but we spend a lot of resource deploying to Africa to look after our banking relationships, and we also liaise with the central banks, so this happens in every country in Africa bar Somalia,” said Stuart Ponder, senior VP EMEA at INTL FCStone, as cited by Finance Feeds. “The relationships that we have built up in Africa now give us a springboard to introduce our wider commodities capability and we see this as a huge opportunity for the future,” he added.
It was not specified whether INTL FCStone intends to focus on a specific segments of its multi-asset business. It became clear, however, that commodities will be in the center of the expansion plans and that forex is also included in the broker’s plans for Africa.
“We are looking to expand our forex business on a more traditional G20 FX trading desk and looking forward to working with a lot of new counterparties in the region” – Ian Ronnie Steadman, Head of European FX Sales for INTL FCStone Ltd.
Apparently, the broker has chosen Africa sinve it is one of the largest natural sources of tradable commodities. The local economies are also among the world’s fastest growing ones, presenting growth opportunities. The company will concentrate on the emerging commodities markets.
“The biggest challenge in entering Africa is the infrastructure of technology, and also building the expertise in the local markets, and working closer with them” Steadman notes.
US-based INTL FCStone offers globally financial services, including trading in over-the-counter (OTC) forex, metals, and commodities, mainly base metals, precious metals, grains, and livestock. It also provides asset management, investment banking and capital-markets advisory services, and proprietary risk-management tools. The company is features as a Fortune 500 company.
The broker’s clients include professional traders, brokers, banks, and other organizations.
Source: Finance Feeds
