{"id":868681,"date":"2026-08-04T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=868681"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:17:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:17:41","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-138-year-old-business-icon-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/868681\/end-of-an-era-for-138-year-old-business-icon-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for 138-year-old business icon in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is embarking on a new era, announcing several key changes as part of its Forge31 initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among its plans to make key changes to its operations is the replacement of its current Stock Exchange News Service (SENS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that revamping this service would be useful to “enhance the issuer and investor experience”, with many traders currently reliant on the platform for updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange also plans to implement a Bond Central Counterparty (CCP) to support the development and resilience of South Africa’s markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JSE was established in 1887 during South Africa’s first gold rush to help finance gold mining. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourse is now the largest in Africa and is home to several of South Africa\u2019s largest companies, including Naspers, Capitec, Harmony Gold and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it has faced challenges as companies increasingly opt for private ownership and others avoid listing due to the associated costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1990s, the JSE had over 850 listed companies, which dropped to about 400 by 2012 and now stands at fewer than 300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This prompted a strategy shift in 2023 under its Simplification Project and Vision 2026, which is now developing into its next five-year phase: FORGE 2031.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the JSE’s interim financial results, the bourse reported a 14.6% increase in operating income to R2 billion in the first half of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

33.6% of this R2 billion came from non-trading income, which the exchange attributed to fast trading growth, rather than a weakening of the non-trading base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JSE’s revenue totalled R1.88 billion for the interim period, an increase of 14.1% to R1.65 billion in the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange’s capital markets generated approximately R719 million in revenue, with the primary market and equity trading contributing the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JSE Investor Services saw R102 million in revenue, while post-trade services contributed R620 million to its earnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourse said that operational efficiency was a major factor in its success in the first half of the year, with sustained market availability of 99.99%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange saw no market outages in the interim period, which it said represents the “operational resilience on which the market depends.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It saw Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of approximately R774 million, a 21% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings per share are R8.16 for the bourse, and it saw a 300% increase in capital expenditure, reaching R110 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This massive increase in expenditure was largely due to the JSE’s current redesign efforts, including R44.5 million in once-off costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future for the JSE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
JSE CEO Valdene Reddy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JSE CEO Valdene Reddy said the bourse had delivered a good performance in the first six months of 2026, noting its considerable growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Growth was broad-based, supported by strong activity across our markets, disciplined cost management and continued contribution from our diversified revenue streams,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our operational performance remained strong, with 99.99% market availability and zero market outages.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Together with a robust balance sheet and strong cash generation, this provides a solid foundation for FORGE 2031, our strategy to strengthen the competitiveness, growth and long-term relevance of the JSE.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the future, Reddy emphasised the exchange’s continued efforts to redesign South Africa’s markets to ensure the country’s resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We remain focused on executing against our strategic priorities, investing selectively in future growth opportunities and delivering sustainable value for shareholders,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourse said that it is entering the second half of the year in a strong position, thanks to the resilience of its core markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that safeguarding market integrity and operational efficiency would be essential parts of its plans for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourse said its Forge31 plans would give it a strategic framework to both strengthen its foundations and pursue new opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the full 2026 year, the exchange said it had revised some of its targets, including OPEX guidance to 6%-8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said its forecasts for capital expenditure over the full year remained unchanged at R190 million to R230 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Full-year cost growth remains dependent on market activity levels, including average daily value traded,” the bourse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Excluding these non-recurring costs, the underlying cost trajectory remains well controlled, and we expect OPEX growth to normalise in 2027 as the benefits of the organisational redesign are realised and once-off implementation costs fall away.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The JSE is undergoing a redesign, with several key changes coming to the exchange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":855449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2084618113815888146","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2166488634171536","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18572703454064156","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26050,175,26049],"class_list":["post-868681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-forge31","tag-jse","tag-valdene-reddy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868681"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868701,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868681\/revisions\/868701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}