I-Net Bridge, South Africa's provider of economic, financial market and corporate data, plans to launch a new real-time market data terminal in February 2013, after entering an exclusive partnership with Norwegian financial information technology company Infront.
Through this partnership, I-Net Bridge will tap into Infront's technology and create I-Net Trader, which will offer a full-depth order book where traders can see all the trades at any given time' as well as detailed South African content and market data from over 50 international exchanges.
"This is a great opportunity for I-Net Bridge to leverage off Infront's experience in 27 countries and enable us to provide 50 international exchanges in a single interface," says Barbara Arnold, the Head of Next-Generation Products and Marketing at I-Net Bridge.
Arnold says the partnership will also bolster I-Net Bridge's range of products available to the local and African market and "is expected to be somewhat of a game-changer in this space".
"The competition is intense in the market data environment, with many new players bringing offerings. I-Net is up for the challenge, having been a leading provider in the SA market for 22 years," Arnold says, adding that the new terminal product will be released in February 2013.
Infront - which provides market data and electronic trading solutions to the buy and sell side of financial players across Europe - is not new to the South African market.
The Infront products were first seen in the South African market in the form of See More Markets, through its relationship with Peresys, prior to the IRESS acquisition.
"We look forward to bolstering the Infront terminal with African and South African content. I-Net Bridge, with its vast content database and expertise in the African continent, will re-launch the product under this banner," Arnold says.
At present, I-Net Bridge provides its clients with live prices, data, sophisticated research tools and breaking news from South Africa and more than 30 major international markets.
The financial data vendor's flagship financial products include I-Net Station and I-Graph, with I-Net Equity Consensus Forecast numbers seen as an industry standard among analysts and portfolio managers.
With an annual revenue in excess of R134 million and a workforce of 135, I-Net Bridge has a client base of more than 300 leading institutions, spanning more than 3 500 desktops.
As a result of considerable flows of funds into African investments, as investors search for better returns, I-Net Bridge has extended its footprint into Africa in order to provide emerging market investors accurate, timeous and reliable financial data.
Infront is excited about the prospects of having I-Net Bridge as its South African partner.
"The combination of in-depth local financial content and excellent service delivery from I-Net with Infront's proven technology and international market data covering over 50 exchanges provides a compelling solution for South African financial players," says Kristian Nesbak, Infront CEO.
"We're excited about the possibilities this will open in this growing market," Nesbak says.
Infront's flagship product - the Infront terminal - was first released in 1998 and has grown to support users in over 27 countries.
I-Net Bridge is 83.3%-owned by the JSE-listed Times Media Limited and the remainder is held by BDFM, which owns Business Day, Financial Mail and Summit TV.
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