Heriot REIT Limited (JSE:HET) listed in the Real Estate sector on the JSE’s AltX board as a Real Estate Investment Trust. Heriot is a property holding and investment company that is invested in industrial, retail, residential, specialised and commercial properties in South Africa. Heriot is the 11th company to list on the JSE this year.

Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has yesterday downgraded to Baa3 (negative outlook) from Baa2 (Rating Under Review outlook), the long-term local- and foreign-currency deposit ratings of the five largest South African banks: The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, FirstRand Bank Limited, Absa Bank Limited, Nedbank Limited, and Investec Bank Ltd.. The rating agency has also downgraded Standard Bank Group Limited's long-term local- and foreign-currency issuer ratings to Ba1 from Baa3, and affirmed all banks' national scale ratings. A full list of the banks' ratings affected by today's rating action is at the end of this press release.

Today’s listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) of the Big50 Ex-SA ETF gives investors access to a new index that offers a diversified investment of 50 companies across the African continent, excluding South Africa, through 15 African stock exchanges. The ETF is offered by investment firm Cloud Atlas Investing, a Johannesburg based Collective Investment Scheme.

Long4Life, a new investment company launched by Bidvest and Bidcorp founder Brian Joffe, listed on the JSE’s Main Board today in the Financial Services – Specialty Finance sector.