Three people have been arrested in connection with a suspected R16-million security tender scam at the Blouberg Local Municipality in Limpopo.
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Balwin Properties has officially been delisted from the JSE๐ธ
This means Balwin is now a privately owned company after nearly 11 years on the JSE.
Steve Brookes, who founded Balwin 30 years ago, and MD Rodney Gray are staying invested in the business alongside the PIC, which is acting on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund. The management team is also staying in place.
Brookes says the move to private ownership does not change leadership or how the business operates. He says the discipline Balwin developed during its years on the JSE will remain part of the business.
So how did we get here?
Balwin listed on the JSE in 2015 at around R10 a share. Over the years, the share price fell substantially, while the company was dealing with the realities of running a large residential development business in a public market.
Then, in May this year, a consortium involving Balwinโs founder-management and the PIC offered R4.35 a share, valuing the company at about R2.26 billion. The offer represented a 41% premium to Balwinโs six-month volume-weighted average share price at the time.
I wrote about this two years ago for the Mail & Guardian, asking whether Balwin was too bold for the South African public market and whether it should consider delisting.
At the time, profits and the share price had fallen, revenue was under pressure, and dividends had been suspended.
Fast-forward to its latest results, and revenue was up 21% to R2.7 billion, apartment handovers increased to 2,053 units, and recurring profit rose 36% to R273.6 million.
So this was not a case of a developer being rescued from collapse. The focus was more on whether a long-term, capital-intensive property developer was suited to the public market.
During those 11 years, it delivered around 26,000 apartments, generated R28.3 billion in apartment sales, and completed its 100th residential development in 2025.
Now they plan to build the next chapter as a private company, with long-term institutional capital behind it and the founding management team still involved.
For me, this closes the loop on questions I first started asking two years ago.
Balwin is no longer on the JSE. The experiment with being a listed residential developer is over. Now we will see what Balwin can do with a private-market structure behind it.