By Paula Luckhoff.
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has reported strong results for the 2025/26 financial year.
The state-owned asset manager said assets under management (AuM) grew by 20% or R608 billion to reach R3.657 trillion by 31 March 2026.
The PIC said this “resilient” growth for FY 2025/26 was achieved despite net outflows to client portfolios of R172 billion.
It was also delivered amid international economic uncertainty and internal turmoil, with CEO Patrick Dlamini suspended and then reappointed to stave off a governance crisis.
The PIC noted that, by February 2026, total AuM had reached R3.958 trillion and was approaching the historic R4 trillion mark but then declined sharply by over R300 billion following heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), which represents over 88.7% of total AuM, grew by more than R546 billion to R3.244 trillion during the financial year.
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) portfolio rose by 14.71% to reach R195 billion.
This year of growth was driven in part by the strong performance of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), particularly in SA-listed equities.
In conversation with Stephen Grootes, Dlamini acknowledges that the Corporation needs to implement change when it comes to its presennce in the unlisted space.
“We really need to make sure that our unlisted portfolio as well as unlisted property portfolio do come to the party and we clean them up significantly. We are also reviewing the operating model for both these portfolios because we do believe that they can be improved.”
“There is an element of fragmentation between the deal teams and the portfolio management teams and we want to make sure we integrate the complete team.”
They are presenting the strategy to the PIC board towards the end of October, he says and are hoping that “we’ll be able to communicate to South Africans how we’ll turn around those two portfolios to make us proud in terms of their performance deliverables.”
Dlamini also comments on his “painful” experience during the leadership disputes that disrupted the PIC earlier in the year.
He expresses confidence that they can now focus on the job at hand, given the support from the ministry, along with their partners and co-investors.
He talks about working together with both the private sector and public sector to try and “shift the economic needle” to create a better future for South Africans, in particular the youth.
“There’s no partner who wants to work with a noisy institution where governance and corruption allegations are leveled left, right and centre. We need to clean the organisation properly; to make sure that governance levels are at an optimal level. And our board has made it very clear that they want nothing but total accountability from all of us, and that they will give us all the support we need and all the powers to deliver on expectations.”