In a Glacier Funds on Friday article two years ago, Denker Capital cautioned that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) was shrinking, with delistings consistently outpacing new listings and eroding the depth of South Africa’s equity market. That challenge has not disappeared – but the story has evolved. In this article, Claude van Cuyck, Head of SA Equity at Denker Capital, revisits the topic, offering an updated perspective on why the environment for new listings is beginning to improve, what has changed since the original assessment, and why a healthier primary market matters for long‑term investors and financial advisers.
This article first appeared in Glacier’s Funds on Friday newsletter.
In our article in mid-2024, ‘Delistings and the changing landscape of the JSE’, the dominant concern was clear: South Africa’s listed universe was shrinking, and new listings were not arriving in sufficient numbers to replenish it. Delistings have continued, and the exchange remains far smaller than it was at its peak.
Figure 1: Number of listed companies on the JSE (1995–2025)
Source: JSE data
The most meaningful change since our earlier article is not that the delisting trend has suddenly reversed. It has not. Rather, the environment for new listings has improved in ways that could matter over time. Sentiment has become more constructive, macro conditions have steadied, and the JSE itself has moved with greater urgency to make listing rules more practical and more competitive. For long-term investors, that matters. A healthy market is not measured only by today’s valuations, the current macro environment and potential growth opportunities. It is also measured by whether good businesses are willing to come to market, raise capital, and broaden the opportunity set for investors.
For investors and financial advisers, this is the central point: the JSE is still navigating the consequences of a long period in which delistings have consistently outnumbered new listings, but the foundations for a more supportive primary market are firmer than they were when we covered this topic two years ago. That does not guarantee a listing boom. It does, however, improve the odds that the next few years look better than the last few.
The delisting trend is still real
It would be a mistake to overstate the turnaround. The structural reasons for delistings remain with us. In many cases, smaller- and mid-cap companies still trade at discounts to intrinsic value, liquidity is often thin, and the costs of maintaining a public listing can feel disproportionate relative to the benefits. When a listed company can access strategic capital privately, or when management and controlling shareholders believe the market is not recognising value, delisting remains a rational option.
That was true when we highlighted transactions such as Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Distell, Mediclinic, PSG Group and Alviva in 2024. It has remained true since then. In the subsequent period we’ve seen meaningful exits and proposed exits from the market. African Rainbow Capital Investments moved ahead with its offer and delisting in 2025. Other notable delistings in 2025 include Rebosis Property Fund, Trencor, AH-Vest, Ayo Technology Solutions, Adcock Ingram, Ascendis and Curro. Barloworld confirmed the delisting of its ordinary shares in January 2026. These transactions differ in structure and strategic rationale (some due to buyouts, others due to business rescue), but they reinforce the same message: the forces behind delistings have not gone away.
For investors, delistings are not uniformly negative. In several cases they occur at material premiums and create immediate value for shareholders. The problem is that a market cannot thrive indefinitely if attractive exits consistently outpace attractive entrances.
Why the tone is more constructive now
The more hopeful story lies on the other side of that equation. Since mid-2024, three developments in particular suggest that the listing environment is improving.
1. The JSE itself has acknowledged a better backdrop
When Boxer listed in November 2024, the exchange said it had welcomed seven new listings in 2024, with another still in the pipeline, and noted that sentiment around new listings had improved materially. That was an important signal because it suggested a shift from the very subdued listing environment that characterised the previous few years.
2. The composition of new listings has become broader and more interesting
Boxer’s November 2024 initial public offering (IPO) was significant not merely because of its size, but because it represented one of the largest public offerings in the past decade. It reminded the market that the JSE can still support sizeable equity issuance when the asset is compelling, the growth case is understandable, and pricing is sensible.
After that came a broader mix of listings. Cilo Cybin listed on AltX in June 2024 as a cannabis-focused SPAC and later moved to the Main Board. In 2025, ASP Isotopes, Optasia and Cell C all came to market. These businesses span retail, specialist healthcare property, advanced materials, fintech and telecommunications. That diversity matters because a healthier exchange should not depend on one sector or one type of issuer. Variety deepens the market and broadens the choice set for investors.
3. Regulatory reform is starting to show tangible effects
When the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) approved the JSE’s Simplification Project in January 2026, the JSE explicitly said its listings pipeline had strengthened in 2025 and pointed to companies such as ASP Isotopes, Optasia and Cell C as evidence that reforms were beginning to have practical effect.
Changes in the regulatory environment
The most important improvement since our earlier article may be regulatory rather than cyclical.
One of the longstanding criticisms of the JSE has been that listing requirements can be too onerous, particularly for smaller issuers. That criticism was never really about investor protection as a concept; it was about whether the balance between investor protection, cost and administrative complexity had tilted too far against issuers. Since 2024, the JSE has taken visible steps to address that concern.
- The first major initiative was market segmentation. Approved with effect from September 2024, this reform repositioned the Main Board into Prime and General Segments. The logic is sensible: not every listed company should face the same regulatory burden if size, liquidity and market impact differ materially. A more calibrated framework can preserve disclosure standards while reducing unnecessary cost and friction for eligible issuers. For companies outside the largest and most liquid part of the market, this can improve the economics of remaining listed and may also make a future listing more attractive.
- The second major initiative was simplification of the listing requirements, as part of the JSE’s Simplification Project. By January 2026, the FSCA had approved a revised framework that reduced the volume of the listing requirements by more than half, used plainer language, and aimed to remove duplication and ambiguity. More importantly, the reforms went beyond cosmetic redrafting. They included changes designed to lower administrative burden and listing friction, such as a more efficient pre-listing statement construct, reduced voting thresholds for certain capital actions, less onerous financial information requirements in some transactions, expanded flexibility for SPACs, and an expanded secondary listings framework. These reforms are aimed less at loosening regulation and more at making regulation usable. This is important in a market trying to improve its attractiveness to new issuers while preserving investor protection.
These changes matter because they affect real-world behaviour. Companies and their advisers respond to the total cost of being public: direct costs, compliance effort, timing uncertainty and management distraction. If those factors become more manageable, the relative attractiveness of a listing improves. That does not automatically produce a flood of IPOs, but it removes one of the arguments against coming to market.
Another underappreciated potential source of future JSE listings lies in the junior mining and exploration space. The Minerals Council South Africa has been advocating a Canada-style flow-through share tax incentive to revive exploration funding, arguing that South Africa’s exploration spend has declined sharply and that junior explorers need better access to risk capital. In Canada, flow-through shares are supported by a mineral exploration tax credit (15%) that helps attract retail and other investors into early-stage exploration companies. If South Africa were to implement a comparable regime, it could strengthen the exploration pipeline and, over time, support the emergence of a fresh pool of junior miners and exploration companies capable of listing on the JSE.
Why primary-market health matters for investors and advisors
Investors and financial advisers should care about this for reasons that go beyond headlines.
- A broader listed market improves diversification. When the local opportunity set narrows, portfolios become more concentrated in a smaller number of familiar names. Concentration can work for a time, particularly when the remaining companies are high quality, but it reduces flexibility and can make portfolios more vulnerable to sector-specific or company-specific shocks.
- A healthier listing environment also improves market renewal. Established companies remain important, but long-term equity returns are often enhanced when investors have access to emerging businesses earlier in their growth journey. New listings provide that renewal. They introduce new business models, new sectors and, occasionally, future market leaders.
- There is also a signalling effect. Companies choose to list when they believe the market will value them fairly, provide access to capital and support future growth. An improving IPO environment therefore tells investors something about confidence in the broader capital market ecosystem. It suggests that entrepreneurs, sponsors and controlling shareholders increasingly see public markets as part of the solution rather than simply a source of cost and scrutiny.
- For investors, this has practical implications. Over time, a deeper and more active primary market can create more opportunities to allocate client capital across different growth profiles, sectors and listing structures. It can also improve the case for remaining engaged with domestic equities at a time when it has become easy to default toward offshore diversification alone. Offshore exposure remains essential but renewed local market depth strengthens the case for balance rather than abandonment.
Progress should be measured in years, not months. A few successful listings do not yet amount to a full revival.
For the JSE to enjoy a sustained improvement in new listings, several things likely need to happen together:
- South Africa’s economic backdrop must remain more stable.
- Business confidence must keep improving. The cost-benefit equation of being listed must continue to move in the right direction.
- Liquidity, especially outside the very largest counters, must improve enough for companies to believe the market can price their shares efficiently.
- The pipeline needs to include not only secondary listings and restructurings, but genuine entrepreneurial IPOs where companies choose the market as their preferred growth platform.
There is also a role for investors themselves. A market that complains about the lack of listings while refusing to support credible new issues sends the wrong signal. Investors should remain disciplined on valuation and quality, but they should also recognise that a functioning primary market depends on thoughtful participation. When good businesses come at sensible prices, support matters.
The road ahead for the JSE
The environment has improved meaningfully over the last two years, even if it has not yet fully turned.
The JSE can also look forward to a few potential new listings in 2026. Post the delisting of MultiChoice (after it was acquired by Canal+), we can expect a secondary listing of Canal+ on the JSE. Another high probability listing will be Coca-Cola HBC. After acquiring a 75% stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, it has indicated that it will pursue a secondary listing on the JSE (primary listing on the LSE). In addition, privately held Fidelity Services Group (security company) has indicated its potential for an IPO.
For investors and advisers, the implication is encouraging but measured. South African equities still require selectivity and patience. Delistings will remain part of the landscape. Yet the JSE today looks less like a market in uninterrupted decline and more like a market that is trying, credibly, to rebuild its appeal. If that effort continues and the broader environment remains supportive, the next chapter for the exchange could be defined not only by who exits, but increasingly by new entrants.
