Ninety One plans to back Johannesburg revival with infrastructure investment

Ninety One, a $240 billion global asset-management firm with South African origins, will financially back infrastructure projects to reverse the decay of Johannesburg, the continent's financial centre, its chief executive has said.

"The major city in the country needs to be turned around," Ninety One Plc chief executive officer Hendrik du Toit said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "It has been appallingly managed," he said, adding that his firm is "making plans to help, not just us, but within our ecosystem."

Africa's largest economy is due to hold municipal elections on 4 November to determine which parties run areas such as Johannesburg, where years of political instability and mismanagement have left the city owing hundreds of millions of dollars to service providers and unable to deliver consistent services.

Du Toit said the retention of executive talent is at stake. "If that city doesn't turn around, the retention of executive talent would be an issue because people don't want to live in places where the water is just cut off and where the roads have too many potholes," he said, adding that the city "could be turned around relatively quickly, although it'll be a huge job."

He pointed to a private-sector boom in renewable energy and a corporate partner modernising Pier 2, sub-Saharan Africa's biggest container gateway at the port of Durban, as models for involving "the best in the world" in other infrastructure projects.

"The investment dollars will start following the results," du Toit said. "There's a lot of opportunity to deploy money, as long as we can do it at the right price, and we are going to move domestic dollars first, and then bring in international dollars once the proof points are there." Du Toit helped found Investec's asset-management unit in 1991; the business eventually became Ninety One, which the lender spun off in 2020 as an independently listed company.