The frustration, expressed yesterday by JSE business development manager Noah Greenhill, comes more than a year after Finance Minister Trevor Manuel changed the law to allow foreign firms to launch a secondary listing on the JSE.

But this has yielded minimal results — to date only Australia’s Aquarius Platinum has listed on the JSE.

Greenhill asked yesterday why foreign companies doing business in SA would not choose to raise capital through the JSE, and would instead list their assets overseas.

Greenhill’s comments came during a function at which Platinum Group Metals SA, which mines platinum near Rustenburg, said it had been upgraded to the main board of Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange due to the strength of its local platinum assets.

Platinum Group Metals is based in Canada and even though its main platinum assets are South African, it is not listed on the JSE.

Greenhill said that it was time for the company to “come home (as it) is an African company, and a South African company”.

He said a number of parties bore the responsibility to change this perception and draw more companies to SA.

Greenhill said the JSE was doing its best to facilitate listings, but financial advisers should encourage companies to list and investors should be more amenable to putting money into exploration companies.

Platinum Group Metals SA is apparently considering a secondary listing on the JSE, while maintaining its position in Canada.

CEO John Gould said Platinum Group Metals SA was “trying to measure the appetite for listing on the JSE” and “that option is definitely open”. But he said a decision was only likely to be made by the middle of next year.

Gould said, though, that there were a number of reasons companies such as his looked north, rather than towards the JSE, as a means to raise capital.

“The most fundamental reason is because local fund managers don’t provide money for exploration companies.”

He said most local investors were skittish when it came to exploration companies, which left these companies with little option but to head north.

But despite the lag in getting companies to list on the local bourse, Greenhill said he expected “about 10” companies to list on the JSE before the end of the year “if all goes according to plan”.

He said these companies were a combination of African and overseas outfits, with turnover ranging from R30m to “many billions”.

These included companies across a spectrum of sectors, but predominantly from the mining industry.