The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has teamed up with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to co-invest in projects where they have mutual interests in SA and the rest of Africa.
The memorandum of understanding entered into on Monday revives a similar agreement that was agreed to in 2012 and lapsed in 2017.
“We are proud to renew this partnership with the PIC, an institution whose objectives align with our mandate. Both the IDC and PIC have contributed tremendously to SA’s socio-economic growth and transformation imperatives,” IDC CEO Mmakgoshi Lekhethe said.
“Our past collaborations helped the IDC to significantly invest in renewable energy projects among others and also to create and save jobs through the UIF. Today, we can proudly state that the IDC helped to derisk this sector.”
Lekhethe took over the reins at the IDC in February, replacing Tshokolo Nchocho, who stepped down at the end of 2023.
The partnership entered into between the two state-owned companies resulted in the conclusion of the PIC Green Bond (Government Employees Pension Fund) and the UIF Fund 2.
“Currently, the parties are in discussions to establish UIF Fund 3. Similar to the UIF Fund 2, the proposed fund will fund job-rich projects (job-creation and job-saving) within the South African economy in the sectors supported by the IDC and PIC,” the entities said in a joint statement.
The PIC, which has about R3.5-trillion assets under management, is the largest investor on the JSE and has been growing its share of investments in the unlisted space over the years, a portfolio that has more than R100bn in assets.
The IDC in September reported a plunge in net profit for the 2025 financial year. Group profit for the year to end-March plunged from R7.5bn in the previous year to R329m, with the loan book ending the year in bad shape with impairments up to R21.3bn from R19.5bn.
Despite the poor performance and in keeping with its developmental mandate, the IDC increased disbursements to “priority” groups, more than doubling funding to black industrialists to R23.4bn from R10bn in the previous reporting period.
PIC CEO Patrick Dlamini, who is also fairly new in the role, having taken over in June, said, among other objectives, the agreement seeks to facilitate and ensure effective utilisation of the two parties’ resources and expertise to build a collaborative relationship that will promote growth of their portfolios.
“Through this partnership, we aim to continue efforts of reindustrialising the SA economy and catalyse new and emerging industries such as green hydrogen; critical minerals; electric vehicles value chains and infrastructure; advanced manufacturing; e-commerce; and high-value agriculture and agro-processing,” Dlamini said.
