GNU-sized boost for South Africa

The Government of National Unity (GNU) has boosted the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE’s) financial results.

The group said that its earnings growth for the 2024 financial year is notable, given the period of heightened geopolitical tensions and muted economic growth in the first half of 2024.

It said that its strong performance was boosted by business resilience and stability, as well as increased revenue diversification via its non-trading business segments.

“We recorded revenue growth across most of our asset classes off the back of sustained positive market sentiment following the formation of the GNU,” said JSE CEO Leila Fourie.

Non-trading income, which jumped by 7.5% to R1,170 million and now contributes 37.8% of operating income, also supported the group’s strategy to build a diversified and resilient exchange group.

Fourie was pleased with the group’s structural cost base reductions, which restrained total expenditure growth to 6.2%.

“This performance was underpinned by robust operational processes and uptime of 99.97% across all our systems,” said the CEO.

The group is also committed to its growth and diversification strategy, with it stating that the results demonstrate the value of its investments across its value-chain and technology.

As part of its technology enablement journey, the bourse made progress in modernising its Broker-Dealer Accounting (BDA) system and launched new technology services such as Colo 2.0. 

It is also developing a central clearing solution for the bond electronic trading platform (ETP).

Dividends upped

The bourse delivered strong results, with 10.4% growth in net profit after tax in 2024 and an improved return on equity (ROE) of 20.2% (2023: 19.4%).

The group also showed healthy cash generation, with its cash balance at R2.8 billion (including bond investments) at the end of 2024, with net cash generated from operations at R1.09 billion.

Total income increased by 6.5% to R3.1 billion, which was supported by he diversified asset classes in the bourse.

It said that revenue diversification protected operating income from a year of muted equity market activity, with most business segments reporting revenue growth for the financial period.

Revenue from the JSE Investor Services (JIS) was up 20.2%. Primary Markets revenue was up 16.5%, with commodity revenues up 11.6% and revenue from bonds and financial derivatives up 6.6%.

The group’s earnings per share (EPS) rose 10.8% to 1,129.4 cents per share, while headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased by 9.6% to 1,128.6 cents per share.

The business is strongly cash-generative, enabling the board to increase the ordinary dividend by 5.6% to 828 cents per share, translating to a distribution of R715 million.