In another first for the island state Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange Pte Ltd (“SDiX”, or the “Exchange”) has announced the upcoming launch of the world’s first commodities exchange in physically settled diamonds, targeted to go ‘live’ in September 2015.
The SDiX platform, the first of its kind globally, will utilise proven exchange technology to create a new marketplace for the global diamond trade, and is designed to deliver price transparency and liquidity to the diamond market through a real-time price discovery mechanism, allowing diamonds to be traded as a commodity, thus enabling the creation of a new asset class.
This new exchange is founded by Alain Vandenborre with a team of seasoned professionals in financial, stock and commodity markets Linus Koh, Latika Kundu, Lai Eng Keat and supported by Jim Rogers and Hsieh Fu Hua as angel investors.
Mr. Alain Vandenborre, Executive Chairman, Founder and controlling shareholder of SDiX, said: “SDiX is a fully electronic spot commodity exchange which we developed over the past two years and designed to deliver price transparency and liquidity to the market. It will provide a self-regulated marketplace for both diamond and financial traders as well as accredited investors to acquire stones at a market price that is driven by real time transactional data. This will result in the homogenization of diamonds, simplifying the manner in which they are valued and hence allowing them to be traded as a commodity.
SDiX’s cutting-edge technology and trading engine allows matching trades above 500,000 transactions per second and our business model opens the market to new participants from financial markets, primarily accredited financial investors and traders, and provides the ability to monetize investments made. We aim to provide a fair, orderly and transparent global marketplace in which diamonds may be acquired at real-time transactional, wholesale prices, thereby removing the need to go through private traders who have little or no regulation. With our innovative business model, SDiX aims to support the creation of diamonds as an asset class that will benefit both the diamond trade industry as well as the financial and commodity markets.”
Commenting on the Vertex investment in the Exchange, Mr. Chua Kee Lock, Group President & CEO of Vertex Ventures Holdings, a fully-owned venture capital subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, said, “At Vertex, we seek out promising, disruptive and transformational technologies and leaders, to build them into global champions. With its innovative exchange-based business model, SDiX is set to transform the way diamonds are traded and potentially jumpstart the growth of the polished diamonds industry globally. The excellent infrastructure and strong leadership team experienced in managing stock and commodity exchanges give SDiX a great head-start in making this venture a success.
