The largest IT companies in South Africa

South Africa has several in-house information technology companies worth over Rand 1 billion.

After making huge gains during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the major global tech stocks took a hit in 2022.

The reasons for the recession are multiple, but primary factors include continued supply chain constraints, declining demand for products and services following the easing of blockades, and uncertainty over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

However, several analysts say these companies will remain a good long-term bet and should return to growth.

Prior to the recent crash, the shares of US giants like Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft have shown exponential growth over the past five years.

According to Listcorp.comthere are 19 technology companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

However, the largest four have their headquarters overseas or operate effectively from abroad.

These include Naspers (valued at R635.93 billion) and its spin-off Prosus (R1.45 trillion), the JSE’s most valuable tech company.

Prosus is officially based in Amsterdam. Although Naspers still points to its headquarters in Cape Town, many of its top executives are now also based in the Netherlands.

Bytes Technology is the third most valuable technology company in the JSE.

It was previously a subsidiary of Altron, but was spun off into an independent entity and listed separately.

Its headquarters are in the UK, where it was initially established before Altron acquired it in 1998.

Karooooo, the main success story stemming from vehicle monitoring and fleet management company Cartrack, is the fourth most valuable tech company in the JSE with R11.84 billion.

It decided to move its headquarters to Singapore along with the rebranding in early 2021.

Finally, Adapt IT was canceled from the JSE following its acquisition by Volaris, based in Canada.

Excluding these five companies from our analysis, Datatec was the most valuable technology company in South Africa, with a market capitalization of R8.44 billion.

Founded in 1986, the Johannesburg-based multinational now has four main divisions: Weston-Comstor technology distributor, IT managed services provider Logicalis, Analysys Mason consulting services and Datatech Financial Services.

It was first listed on the JSE in December 1994 and began its international expansion when it acquired Logicalis Networks in 1997.

The following year, it acquired a majority stake in the US distributor Westcon.

His portfolio continued to grow in the following years.

During its last financial year, it posted operating income of $ 82.1 million (R1.2 billion).