Dr Leila Fourie, JSE group CEO who has resigned from the position effective March 31, 2026.
Image: Supplied.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Monday paid out a special dividend along with its year-end payout to shareholders as it reached the end of a seven-year strategy that saw its equities market capitalisation double, and the exit of its CEO, Dr Leila Fourie.
The bourse reported double-digit growth for the second consecutive year. An ordinary dividend of 961 cents per share was declared for the year to December 31, up 16% from 828 cents a year before. A special dividend of 100 cents per share would also be paid out (2024: nil). Dr Fourie said in an interview share buybacks were also being considered after evaluating potential merger and acquisition activity.
The JSE’s share price traded 4.23% higher on Monday to R174.09, which Dr Fourie said was a positive sign from investors, given markets were down due to the US/Iran crisis. The share price has also increased by 38% over a year.
Dr Fourie announced her retirement effective March 31, last October, and she is being succeeded by Valdene Reddy, currently director of Capital Markets at the JSE. Dr Fourie said she would continue to perform functions on the board, and her activities with the UN, Yes Foundation, and the board of Henley Business School. She also plans to do some sailing.
Dr Fourie said her resignation was well-timed, because not only was the group at the end of a strategy cycle, but the bourse was operationally and financially on a sustainable footing. Reddy would lead the development of a new strategy for the strategy to 2031.
She said as evidence of the success of the Strategy 2026, the combined market capitalisation of JSE-listed companies was currently over R24 trillion, a figure that had grown from R12.6 trillion in 2019.
“Throughout the delivery of Strategy 2026, we focused on growing the business, enhancing our earnings quality, protecting our core business, and enhancing operations by investing in people, technology infrastructure upgrades, and broadening our offering,” she said.
The strategy to diversify its earnings stream had reduced the impact of equity trading volatility and fortified the bourse’s earnings profile through market cycles, delivering long-term business and financial sustainability.
She said the bourse was also currently attracting a great deal of new interest from foreign investors, as evidenced by the fact that the bond market had seen a net foreign inflow of R52bn versus R22bn at the same time last year.
The resilient operational processes of the JSE were indicated by an uptime of 99,96% across all its markets, exceeding the long-run average, despite increased average daily volumes.
“Adapting to technological advancements has been central to the JSE’s strategy. 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,” she said.
The JSE had also made 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 pilot phase was delivered by the end of 2025.
Additionally, the group made further enhancements to its Listing Requirements to attract and retain listings. Its expanded core products included the delivery of Bond Repos and JSE Fix Hub.
The Exchange had also advanced its Information Services growth strategy with the completion of the technology phase of the Information Services modernisation, and 29 new data products were launched in the marketplace.
The development of a central clearing solution for the bond electronic trading platform (ETP) through JSE Clear (Bond CCP) was on track to go live in 2027. The Bond CCP aimed to broaden access to the bond and repo markets, increase trade liquidity, reduce counterparty credit risk, and enhance market transparency.
The JSE Claim It initiative, which reunites unclaimed dividends with their rightful owners, continues to scale. Since launch in March 2025, nearly 87,000 individuals had come forward to check their dividend eligibility status, with close to 13,000 people matched as having dividends due to them.
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