Exclusive: Markets.com hires former IG South Africa head Solomon Gounden
FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that Retail FX and CFDs broker Markets.com has made some major changes to its South Africa operation. The changes include a new Managing Director for the South Africa business, as well as a new office in a new location.
Personnel-wise, Cyprus based Markets.com has hired former IG Group hires Ben Hemington from Teach First as ESG Manager. Leading online retail broker IG Group Head-of-South-Africa Solomon Gounden (pictured above) to run its business in the country. Mr. Gounden left IG – which has the largest presence in South Africa of all foreign-based FX brokers – earlier this year. He had previously also worked for Standard Bank Group in South Africa, where he rose to be Head of Global Markets, establishing the Foreign Exchange business for the bank’s Commercial and Business banking unit.
The other change for Markets.com is a move of its South Africa operation and headquarters from the coastal city of Durban, to Johannesburg. The company has opened its new offices in the Rosebank suburb to the north of central Johannesburg.
Markets.com is the B2C “Retail FX” arm of TradeTech Group, the financials unit of online gaming tech company Playtech (LON:PTEC). The company’s South Africa subsidiary TradeTech Markets (South Africa) (Pty) has held a license (no. 46860.) issued by the South Africa regulator FSCA for a number of years. We had exclusively reported back in August that Playtech was actively shopping Markets.com and the entire TradeTech Group, in an effort to focus on its core gaming business.
FNG spoke with Markets.com CEO Joe Rundle, who said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Solomon to Markets.com and all the wealth of experience he brings. He joins us at a crucial moment for the business as we are expanding our global presence under the Marketsx and Marketsi brands. We are delighted to welcome such an experienced, knowledgeable and determined individual – we know he has excellent pedigree, having driven IG’s rapid expansion in SA from 2018 to 2020.
We’re excited about growing market share in not just South Africa but across the entire African continent. We’ll be rolling out new products for our African clients and Solomon will be instrumental in making this a success whilst at the same time growing our existing leveraged business.
As part of the changes Markets.com will be relocating our South African office to Johannesburg.”
Solomon Gounden, Markets.com Managing Director, South Africa, added:
“I’m absolutely delighted to join this team and am confident we can really grow our presence in Africa. Having deep knowledge of the local market is proving increasingly important for brokers – no more so than in South Africa where local banks dominate the space – so I hope to deliver for Markets.com the same kind of market share growth as experienced at IG. Markets.com has a fantastic brand name, global presence and superb technological platform, so with those three things we are planning for great things ahead.”
Anonymous
November 29, 2021 @ 9:11 pm
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