Johannesburg Stock Exchange boosts software spending as interim profit climbs 17%

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has tripled its software investment, spending R75.5 million on intangible assets in the six months to June 2026—up from R24.4 million a year earlier. Capital expenditure rose to R110 million as the exchange modernises its back‑office systems, migrates to Amazon Web Services cloud services and advances projects such as its Bond central counterparty system, Pentagon and Webstir. The spending underpins the JSE’s Forge 2031 strategy to create a pan‑African digital marketplace by 2031, extending beyond crypto trading to tokenisation and digital settlement.

In the same period the JSE reported a 16.9% increase in net profit after tax to R652 million, with revenue up 14.1% to R1.88 billion and EBITDA rising 18.1% to R856 million. Growth was driven by stronger market activity, higher equity‑market revenues and disciplined cost management, while non‑trading income fell modestly. The exchange generated R625 million in net cash from operations, a 20.6% rise year‑on‑year.