September 22, 2015

Purple Group shines at Top Stockbroker awards

CN&CO’s client, Purple Group, excelled at the 2015 Financial Mail/Investors Monthly Top Stockbroker of the Year awards, held on 22 September at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The group, through its subsidiaries GT247.com, EasyEquities and GT Private Broking, was named top overall stockbroker in the country. In addition, the EasyEquities tax-free account was named best tax-free option on the market, while GT247 placed third for the very tightly contested People’s Choice award.

Pictured above are Purple Group’s Tristan Finnemore, Gary van Dyk, Paul Jansen van Vuuren, Romi Appel, Almero Oosthuizen and Charles Savage with their awards.

Purple Group CEO Charles Savage expressed delighted at the group’s performance.

“We’ve always been about innovation and making it easy for our clients to invest,” he said. “These awards tell us that we’re doing it right in all areas of our business.

“We’re particularly proud of EasyEquities, which participated in the survey for the first time last year and won the award for top stockbroker for the young investor – even though we were still in the test phase! The platform is less than a year old and already making a big noise in the market.”

Although young, EasyEquities is no stranger to the awards podium, having won the 2014 Accenture Innovation Award and been named Top Stockbroker for the Young Saver by Business Day.

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Financial Mail Investors Monthly editor Rob Rose, Purple Group CEO Charles Savage and Intellidex chairman Stuart Theobald smile for the cameras. Charles holds the award for top stockbroker in South Africa

The Top Stockbroker awards were established in 2010 and have since become recognised as the industry’s premier ranking. This year, 4 525 clients participated in the survey.

“What we like about this ranking is that it involves stockbroking firms and clients,” said Charles. “We fill in a questionnaire about various aspects of our service offering, which ranges from instruments traded to transparency of pricing. There’s also a client questionnaire and a mystery shopper survey. So it really covers all the bases.”

Stuart Theobald, chairman of Intellidex, the company that conducted the survey and analysed the results, said the survey had evolved over the years as the relationship between stockbrokers and retail investors has shifted.

“The biggest shift has come with the introduction on online share trading,” he said. “Over the years we have seen a radical shift in the proportion of investors who invest directly online, through a broker and via the telephone.”

“Working with Purple Group and all its brands has been really exciting for us at CN&CO,” says Carel Nolte. “The team is energetic, enthusiastic, clever and 100% focused on getting rid of the barriers that prevent South Africans from investing in the stock exchange. We love how they’ve disrupted the stockbroking industry and brought close to 10 000 new investors to the JSE. “Big congratulations to the winners from everyone at CN&CO!”

A comprehensive write-up of the awards and the winners appears in Investor’s Monthly, free with this week’s edition of Financial Mail.

You, too, can congratulate the winners on Twitter … @PurpleGroupPPE @GT_247 @EasyEquities @csavagegt247. Also check out @rationalhill @financialmail @intellidex.