Johannesburg, 2 March 2026: The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) today announced record financial results for the 2025 financial year, and double-digit growth for the second consecutive year. In light of renewed national confidence and global interest in South African assets, the Bourse’s growth was driven by elevated equity market activity, proactive cost management and consistent execution across its core business lines and a diversified revenue base, demonstrating high quality of earnings.

The Group reported an increase in Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) of 16.7%, to R1 071 million (2024: R918 million), translating into Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS) of 1 329 cents per share, up 17.7% year-on-year (YoY). Return on equity (ROE) rose to 22.0%, up from 20.2% in the prior year. 

Operating income grew by 14.2% to R3.5 billion, supported by consistent delivery across the Bourse’s core business lines, including equity market revenues in Capital Markets (+18%), Post-Trade Services (+18%), Information Services (+10%) and JSE Clear (+10%). 

The Group remains highly cash generative, with a robust balance sheet. At the end of December 2025, the cash balance had increased by 12.7% to R3.2 billion (including bond investments) with net cash generated from operations at R1.23 billion (2024: R1.09 billion), up 12.3% YoY, which enabled the Board to declare an ordinary dividend of 961 cents per share for 2025 (2024: 828 cents) and a special dividend of  100 cents per share (2024: Nil), resulting in a total dividend payout ratio of 85.6% (2024: 78%), and a 28,1% increase in the total dividend year-on-year.

Commenting on her final set of results as outgoing JSE Group CEO, Leila Fourie noted, “Throughout the delivery of Strategy 2026, we have consistently focused on growing the business, enhancing our quality of earnings, protecting our core business and enhancing operational resilience by investing in people, technology infrastructure upgrades and broadening our offering. As we near the conclusion of this strategy cycle, our strategic priority has been to transform the JSE into an innovative, sustainable exchange for the future and a conduit for growth in South Africa’s financial markets. I am proud of the key milestones the JSE has achieved against our strategy, delivering an improved Return on Equity (ROE) of 22% from 17% in 2019, with the combined market capitalisation of JSE listed entities surging from R12.6 trillion in 2019 to over R24 trillion today.” 

“Our focus on earnings diversification, a core component of Strategy 2026, has enabled us to significantly diversify income, reducing the impact of equity trading volatility, and fortifying our earnings profile through market cycles to deliver long-term business and financial sustainability. The success of this strategy is demonstrated by our resilience through dynamic cycles and solid revenue growth across our asset classes, fuelled by robust equity market activity, proactive cost management and consistent execution across our core business lines,” added Fourie. 

The Group’s performance was further underpinned by robust and resilient operational processes and uptime of 99.96% across all its markets, exceeding the long-run average, despite increased average daily volumes. This operational resilience and dependability are a result of consistent investment over time and a key enabler for earnings and client confidence, echoing the enduring value created by the exchange. 

“Adapting to technological advancements has been a central to the JSE’s strategy, with strong delivery against key metrics which has advanced our plans to build a future-fit financial market infrastructure while maintaining robust core systems and uninterrupted market availability,” continued Fourie. “As the JSE moves into its next growth phase, we will continue to invest in our people, technology innovation, broadening our product and service offering while optimising cloud, digitisation and AI through global collaboration to advance our strategic agenda.”

The Group has made transformative progress on the modernisation of its Broker Dealer Accounting (BDA) system, which removes the JSE’s dependency on its mainframe legacy system and reduces running costs. The BDA transformation initiative delivered key milestones ahead of schedule, with the pilot phase being successfully delivered by the end of 2025.  Additionally, the Group has made further enhancements to its Listing Requirements to attract and retain listings, expanded core products including the delivery of Bond Repos and JSE Fix Hub and increasing new clients in the Colo 2.0 secondary cloud solution, which mitigates outage risks and supports business continuity for clients.  

The Exchange has also advanced its Information Services growth strategy with the completion of the technology phase of the Information Services modernisation and 29 new data products launched in the marketplace. 

The process of developing a central clearing solution for the bond electronic trading platform (ETP) through JSE Clear (Bond CCP) is on track for go live in 2027. The Bond CCP will broaden access to the bond and repo markets, increase trade liquidity, reduce counterparty credit risk, and enhance market transparency which should improve South Africa’s attractiveness to global investors and increase participation in South African government bonds. 

The JSE Claim It initiative that reunites unclaimed dividends with their rightful owners continues to scale. Since launch in March 2025, nearly 87 000 individuals have come forward to check their dividend eligibility status with close to 13 000 people matched as having dividends due to them. 

The JSE is well-positioned to advance its strategic agenda and will continue to thrive and deliver on its important mandate under Valdene Reddy’s capable leadership as she assumes the role of Group CEO next month. The Group remains committed to fiscal discipline and deploying capital responsibly and consistently to drive shareholder value and future-proof the Bourse.

Revenue performance per segment:

Capital Markets

• Primary Market: +3.8% to R194 million
• Equity Trading: +28.5% to R571million
• Colocation Fees: +14.9% to R54 million
• Equity Derivatives Trading: +13.5% to R130 million
• Bond and financial derivatives: +12.2% to R156 million
• Commodity Derivatives Trading: +5.5% to R94 million
• Other1  : +25.6% to R89 million

JSE Investor Services (JIS)

• JIS: -7.1% to R212 million

Post-Trade Services

• Clearing and Settlement: +33.8% to R548 million
• Back-office services (BDA): +4.1% to R423 million
• Funds under management: +7.0% to R102 million

JSE Clear

• JSE Clear: +9.8% to R130 million
• Information services: +9.8% to R498 million

Information Services: 

Strate

• Strate: +20.7% to R192 million

1 Other includes: Issuer Services revenue, Investor Protection Levy income and SME revenue.