The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), fresh from reviewing its corporate structure, has set a target of R4.2-trillion in assets under management in the next two years, representing a R1.2-trillion increase on what it reported in the 2025 financial year.
The asset manager, the biggest investor on the JSE, Africa’s largest bourse, revealed this target in its corporate plan.
The group, which invests on behalf of government employees, the UIF and the Compensation Fund, said its financial strategy for 2026-2028 focused on balancing profitability with excellent client service amid economic and technological changes.
To this end, it plans to invest in digital infrastructure and embed technology across operations to reduce costs and improve client experience through a digital investment platform and predictive analytics.
“The PIC aims to maintain cost-efficiency with specific financial ratios, including reducing the employee cost ratio to, at most, 35% and the total cost to income ratio to 75% or less by 2031, highlighting the ratio as a key metric for digitisation impact,” reads the corporate plan.
“The plan aims for assets under management of about R4.2-trillion by 2028, with diversified product mixes and client bases, including the GEPF [Government Employee Pension Fund], retail, private sector, and sovereign wealth funds, alongside a focus on ESG, FinTech and digital assets aligned with market trends.”
The PIC approved an AI strategy to improve productivity by using AI as a personal assistant, efficiency through adoption of AI-enabled business solutions, and improving decisions and customer experience.
— PIC corporate plan
The PIC’s approved IT strategy will see it modernise, transform and unlock its operations by automating and digitising the overall investment as well as support processes of interaction and engagement.
“The PIC approved an AI strategy to improve productivity by using AI as a personal assistant, efficiency through adoption of AI-enabled business solutions, and improving decisions and customer experience.”
The plans come as the asset manager rings in significant management changes, doing away with its group chief investment officer (CIO) role in a leadership shake-up aimed at streamlining decision-making and strengthening accountability. The group has opted for three CIOs, responsible for:
- listed investments;
- unlisted investments; and
- properties and infrastructure.
The company this year parted ways with its CIO, Kabelo Rikhotso, who was placed on precautionary suspension in October. The position of CIO was reintroduced into the PIC’s operating structure in line with the recommendations of the Mpati commission of inquiry. Since the end of 2025, it has been reviewing its corporate strategy and structure.
The review considered that one CIO position was responsible for several investment teams across different asset classes, while the combined assets the PIC manages on behalf of clients now exceed R3-trillion. The new structure provides for the separation of the current CIO function into three CIO positions to enhance efficiency and more effective investment management across the listed and unlisted properties and infrastructure investment portfolios.
To clean up its unlisted portfolio, the PIC earlier this year went to market seeking to appoint a panel of turnaround specialists in a last-ditch effort to stabilise its troubled multibillion-rand unlisted portfolio, particularly its controversy-hit property division. Its Isibaya Fund was formed to invest in projects that promote social responsibility, infrastructure and transformation in South Africa and the rest of Africa.
However, much of the portfolio has underperformed. The situation deteriorated so much that the GEPF, whose assets are managed by the PIC, last year temporarily withdrew its mandate for the company to invest in the unlisted space.
Parliament was told last year that more than 40% of its unlisted portfolio was in distress after a sustained period of underperformance. One of the mandates the board gave to new PIC CEO Patrick Dlamini was to clean up its multibillion-rand unlisted portfolio.
Business Times
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