JSE: Strong results, stuck exchange

The year 2025 was nothing if not good for anyone long the JSE’s all share index. Happily, it was equally rewarding for the exchange itself: shares in the JSE Limited have gained about 40% over one year, with a 6.4% jump on Monday thanks to the strength of its full-year results.

Headline earnings were 17% higher, at R13.28 a share on a 15% rise in revenue to R3.4bn. The JSE has upped its ordinary dividend by 16% to 961c, and has lavished an extra 100c a share on investors in the form of a special dividend.

This is the last set of results under CEO Leila Fourie, who mentions many contributors to the exchange’s success – above all the strength of the cash equity market. “The average daily value traded was up by 32%,” she says.

It was an exceptional year, says JSE veteran David Shapiro, referring to the frenzied buying of gold and platinum shares. Still, he says, “it’s a very solid result”.

There are some caveats to the numbers though, like a dramatic decrease in “other net income” from R71m to just R13m and an 8% rise in total expenses, to R2.3bn.

Last year was also in many ways the same as it has been every year for the past decade: one of lethargic growth and frustrating delays in new entrants. It’s a strange dichotomy.

Lacking the boom

The JSE can’t take all the blame for it, though. “What brings companies to the market is really the underlying economy – a booming economy,” says Shapiro. “That’s really what drives the stock market, and more of the reason the JSE has gone nowhere for decades.”

Fourie agrees. “The JSE is as much a mirror of the overall global and local macro conditions as it is a mechanism,” she says – and the macro conditions have certainly not been encouraging.

As Shapiro points out: “The stock exchange is not responsible for growing the economy; it reflects a growing economy.” South Africa’s struggle to eke out even a 2% growth rate explains the poor showing of new listings on the bourse.

Despite two multibillion-rand initial public offerings in the latter half of 2025 (namely Optasia and Cell C), the number of new listings is still dire.

A very nothing number of listings

In total, the JSE gained and lost six listings in 2025, leading to a very nothing sort of result. While it’s true that the delistings have slowed (down from 24 firms that left in 2023), companies aren’t exactly flocking to go public either, with 2024 a better performance than 2025 at eight new listings.

But Fourie argues against viewing listings as the primary success indicator. “The JSE must be considered across a multitude of lenses, and listings is one of the many lenses,” she tells Currency.

Still, listings are a pretty crucial aspect, and there are valid critiques to be made of the JSE’s inability to attract new players. Experts have for years pointed to the JSE’s rigid regulations as one reason.

This is why the exchange launched its Simplification Project in 2023, to slim down official listing requirements.

“We are very pleased with the amount of change that we’ve introduced,” says Fourie, who points to a 50% volume reduction in listings requirements since.

The real thing

And in 2026 the JSE will welcome Coca-Cola HBC, which Fourie says will make “a very, very strong contribution” to the exchange. It is worth about R364bn, which will place it among the top 20 JSE-listed companies by market value.

For South African investors with limited access to global consumer names on the JSE, it would be a truly meaningful addition, bringing one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers worldwide into local portfolios just as it doubles down on African investment via the purchase of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.

Shapiro agrees that this is an “exciting business”. It might not be a mega-fintech company, but he notes that “the positive is that in Africa [beverages] is still a huge growth area”.

Joining Coca-Cola will be French broadcasting giant Canal+, after its R35bn acquisition of the MultiChoice Group last year.

“I think all of these larger listings that we are starting to see are indicating a confidence in South Africa as a capital market,” Fourie says.

Antiquated legacies

Yet there’s still one, major legacy issue dragging the JSE back: its antiquated Broker Dealer Accounting (BDA) system.

In fact, BDA is the reason the JSE is now involved in a dispute with A2X, South Africa’s alternative exchange, and why it has been referred to the Competition Tribunal for alleged exclusionary conduct. If it loses the case, the bourse could be fined up to 10% of revenue, which would horrify shareholders.

Brokers, you see, are mandated to use BDA to trade on the exchange.

And “by mandating it to the brokers, they have then kept it a closed system”, explains A2X CEO Kevin Brady. He argues that the JSE is purposefully hanging onto this system in its self-interest, and in the meantime is making it harder for brokers to trade on A2X.

“If you look at their revenue, the BDA system brings in their third-biggest revenue stream – about R450m,” says Brady. “So, you can understand [they] can’t just give that away, so you have to have a strategy as to how you’re going to replace it, and until they have that in place they are hanging on to it.”

Brady says the JSE has couched its approach “under the guise of risk and market integrity, and we can have that debate, but we think that is really a smokescreen to protect their interest”.

In the meantime, “it’s coming at a cost to the greater market and the evolution and progression of the South African market”.

A long overdue update

The JSE strongly denies the allegations, and Fourie explains that the bourse is actually in the process of updating the BDA system. “We’re using AI to translate mainframe code into more modern Java code, and we’re also at the same time putting our system into the cloud.”

When asked if this change finally occurring is at all linked to the A2X issue, Fourie rebuffs the notion.

The project is due to go live in the first half of 2027. Even so, if the tribunal decides against the JSE, it will be hard shock to absorb.

While the JSE’s shares jumped on the news of its extra dividend, there are those who still can’t make much of an argument in favour of buying the company.

“The JSE is a tiny, far out of the way regional market. We can’t make money out of the JSE,” says Shapiro, who can’t seem to understand why anyone would fight over the market share of such a small, insignificant region.

And maybe that is the curse of the JSE – it is always going to be too small. No amount of nicely worded results and market-cap increases can change the fact that the economy in which it operates is struggling to grow. So this year may be one of reckoning or reward – but we can only wait and see.

ALSO READ:

• Proof of life: Why Leila Fourie sees a revival for the JSE
• The JSE’s listings crisis demands some honest introspection
• Trading blows: A2X and the JSE head for the Competition Tribunal

_{Top image: Gallo/Media24.}