EasyEquities challenger coming to South Africa

The Chinese investment platform Webull is opening its African branch in South Africa and plans to be operational from the end of this year.

Webull South Africa CEO Ricardo da Silva said the company has seen tremendous growth in retail investing in South Africa.

Online share trading steadily gained traction in South Africa in the 2000s after big banks like Standard Bank, FNB, and Absa offered trading platforms to their clients.

Retail investing in South Africa has grown tremendously with the introduction of fractional shareholding provided through the retail investing platform EasyEquities.

Purple Group’s EasyEquities has increased the number of investors in South Africa by 400% since its launch in 2013.

The company has 1 million users, and when it launched, there were only 250,000 investors on the JSE.

Easy Equities CEO Charles Savage said this is only the start, and that the adoption of retail investment is still gaining momentum in the country.

Webull is starting its footprint in South Africa because of the country’s strong financial regulatory framework and robust legal system.

Savage said South Africa’s capital market is arguably the best-regulated capital market of all emerging markets.

Additionally, Webull saw that South Africans want to take charge of their financial futures by investing themselves rather than through asset managers.

Savage said South Africans have an appetite for managing their own finances because many have been disappointed in the yield of their retirement investments.

Webull wants to provide South African retail investors with easy global investment access to the best companies.

They do not want investors to be locked into South African shares or a geographical region’s shares. The company aims to focus on providing South Africans with access to the US markets.

“It’s not that there has not been access. It’s just been very expensive and complicated to do,” Da Silva said.

This is because the US market is one of the most sophisticated capital markets with the best opportunities globally.

Webull also aims to allow investors to react to global markets as news breaks and take advantage of new investment opportunities immediately.

Additionally, the company wants to provide customers with the deepest research tools and information.

Furthermore, Da Silva said the retail investment market is starting to pick up again post-Covid, especially with shares and trading becoming more accessible worldwide.

The company sees Africa as the future and a long-term investment. They view South Africa as their first step into the continent. 

Webull offers users both fractional shares and the opportunity to buy full shares.

They want to allow investors to grow their portfolios slowly and progressively so that they can take advantage of compound growth.

Webull aims to do this through its low costs, which allow users to invest more than they otherwise would have, and through promotions.

The company will offer users commission-free trading for a month when they sign up and reward users with commission-free trading or free shares for attending a webinar.

This contrasts South Africa’s most beloved retail investment platform EasyEquities’ controversial decision to charge people R25 if they do not invest at least R1 per month or take a course to improve their knowledge.

Savage said this practice has led active users to become more educated and to pay increased attention to their investments.

Additionally, it has led less active investors to check on their investments more regularly to check that their R25 monthly fee is worthwhile.

Savage explained how this has had a net positive effect on the investment portfolios of EasyEquities users. Their users have outperformed asset managers in nearly every category, he said.

Furthermore, EasyEquities does property investment and crypto and offers users access to foreign exchange and foreign stock markets.