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Annual financial results for the year ended 30 June 2026 and availability of integrated annual report
EPE CAPITAL PARTNERS LTD
(INCORPORATED IN THE REPUBLIC OF MAURITIUS)
(REGISTRATION NUMBER: C138883 C1/GBL)
ISIN: MU0522S00005
SHARE CODE: EPE
("ETHOS CAPITAL" OR "THE COMPANY" OR “THE GROUP”)
ANNUAL FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2026 AND AVAILABILITY OF INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT
INTRODUCTION
EPE Capital Partners Ltd is an investment holding company, registered, and incorporated in Mauritius
and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (“JSE”). It historically invested directly into Funds or
Co-Investments that are actively managed by Ethos Management Company (Pty) Limited (“Ethos”),
that provided the Company with largely indirect exposure to a portfolio of unlisted and listed private
equity-type investments. Ethos acts as the Company’s Investment Advisor. Post the 27 February
2026 transaction, where the Company’s sold its direct and indirect portfolio investments, excluding its
indirect investments in Optasia (“Residual Assets sale”) for an effective R660 million in cash proceeds
(comprising of the R640 million headline price, and a further R20 million from the Vertice earn-out),
the only remaining investments in the Company relate to the exposure in Optasia.
The Ethos Capital Board of Directors (“the Board”) is responsible for the process of determining how
best to disclose the performance of the Group in a transparent manner. Due to the nature of the
business conducted by the Group, the Group’s performance is largely measured by the net asset
value (“NAV”) and NAV per share (“NAVPS”). The Board has adopted the NAVPS as the relevant
measure for trading statement and results announcement purposes. This approach is consistent with
prior years and has been approved by the JSE.
RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT
Key highlights for the year ended 30 June 2026
• Material asset realisations
o The Initial Public Offering (“IPO”) of the Optasia business on the JSE, with partial sell
down proceeds of R360 million
o The Residual Assets sale, concluded in February 2026, for the effective price of R660
million
• Liquidity and debt
o R1.14 billion in proceeds realised from Ethos Funds
o Full repayment of the outstanding debt and excess cash available for the pro rata
share repurchase in March 2026 (see below)
• Return of value and capital to shareholders during the 2026 year
o Unbundling of Brait Exchangeable Bonds (“Brait Bonds”) on 8 December 2025 which
resulted in the return of R171 million of value to shareholders
o Pro rata share repurchase completed on 9 March 2026, totalling R854 million
Overview
Since November 2023, the focus of the Board has been to optimally monetise its asset base and it
has assessed a variety of options to maximise and expedite the return of capital and value to Ethos
Capital shareholders. With asset sales and cash proceeds received, the Company implemented share
repurchases as well as made the decision to unbundle Ethos Capital’s Brait Shares and Brait Bonds
to its shareholders in July 2024 and December 2025 respectively.
During the past year ended 30 June 2026, the Board continued to drive the optimisation strategy and
there have been some notable realisation events, and return of capital and value to shareholders.
These include:
• the Optasia IPO was successfully completed in November 2025, where the company placed
c. 342.4 million shares at a price of R19.00 per share and listed on the JSE. As part of the
IPO, the Ethos Optasia Consortium SPV (the special purpose vehicle which holds the Ethos
Capital investors’ indirect interest in Optasia) (“Optasia SPV”) sold 26.4% of its shares and
retained an effective 4.5% holding in Optasia whilst realising R360 million of gross proceeds;
• the Board decided to unbundle the Brait Bonds to Ethos Capital shareholders. This
distribution was completed on 8 December 2025 at an implied value of R0.67 per Ethos
Capital share and a value of R171 million;
• in February 2026, the Residual Asset sale to a consortium closed for an effective price of
R660 million. This price included R20 million from an earn-out received on the sale of the
Vertice business;
• aggregate proceeds received during the year, including the Optasia IPO and the Residual
Asset sale, totalled R1.14 billion;
• as a result of the above transactions and proceeds, the Company concluded a pro rata share
repurchase on 9 March 2026. The final repurchase consideration of R854.1 million
represented 41.5% of the issued share capital prior to the repurchase;
• the value distributed to shareholders in the 2026 year amounted to R1.03 billion, being the
combination of the unbundling of the Brait Bonds and the pro rata share repurchase;
• all outstanding debt in Ethos Capital was fully repaid in the year;
• the narrowing of the discount to NAVPS has been a core focus for the Board with the discount
to NAVPS at 22% at 30 June 2025, narrowing to 4% at 30 June 2026;
• on the assumption that Ethos Capital shareholders held onto both the unbundled Brait Bonds
and Brait Shares, exercised their Brait Rights and held all at 30 June 2026, the shareholders
would have received: a 130% return over the 2-year period ended 30 June 2026.
NAVPS movement and Share price
The above sale transactions and unbundling of the Brait Bonds were the primary drivers for the year
on year decrease in the NAVPS as summarised below:
30 June 30 June Movement
2025 2026
Reported NAVPS R8.57 R5.62 (34.4%)
Share price R6.65 R5.38 (19.1%)
Discount (1) 22% 4%
(1) Share price discount to reported NAVPS
Post the completion of the Residual Asset sale, Ethos Capital’s portfolio now consists of its exposure
to the Optasia listed shares, via the Optasia SPV and Chronos Capital Limited investment. The
Board’s focus remains on optimising these positions for our shareholders. The Optasia shares remain
subject to an orderly market agreement with the bookrunners until 5 November 2026 (the lock up
period for the Optasia SPV expired in May 2026), with the interim results for Optasia released on 14
September 2026. The key highlights from Optasia’s mid-year results announcement were:
• It delivered strong growth across the group for the first half of 2026.
• Revenue increased by 58% compared to H1 2025 to $185.3 million, with adjusted EBITDA
increasing by 45% to $77.9 million.
• Normalised net income increased by 40% to $39.3 million, with free cash conversion
improving to 41.9%, while net debt remained low at 0.20x annualised adjusted EBITDA.
• The Micro Financing Solutions (“MFS”) business continued to be the primary growth driver,
with revenue increasing by 84% and representing 72% of the group revenue.
• The business expects further growth from the scaling of the existing markets, new
developments and the next wave of products and partnerships.
For further details on Optasia’s results announcement and presentation, please refer to:
https://optasia.com/results-and-presentations.
FINANCIAL POSITION AND INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO
SUMMARISED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
Group
30 June 2026 30 June 2025
R'million R'million
ASSETS
Non-current assets
Unlisted investments at fair value 807.7 2,371.2
Current assets 52.5 23.4
TOTAL ASSETS 860.2 2,394.6
EQUITY AND LIABILITIES
Total Ordinary shareholders' equity 845.6 2,193.6
Total Liabilities 14.6 201.0
TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 860.2 2,394.6
NET ASSET VALUE 845.6 2,193.6
Net Asset Value per share (Rand) 5.62 8.57
Attributable shares in issue ('000) 150,543 255,985
AVAILABILITY OF AUDITED ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The audited Annual Financial Statements, alongside the Integrated Annual Report, are available from
today at the below JSE cloudlink,
https://senspdf.jse.co.za/documents/2026/JSE/ISSE/EPEE/EPECAP0626.pdf
and both are published on the Company’s website at,
https://ethoscapital.mu/investors/reports-results/
Deloitte & Touche, the Group’s independent auditor, has audited the Consolidated and Company
Annual Financial Statements and has expressed an unmodified audit opinion thereon.
The results announcement has been prepared in compliance with the JSE Listings Requirements and
does not provide full or all of the details and therefore any investment decision should be based on a
consideration of the Annual Financial Statements as a whole, which are available for viewing from
today at the links as set out above.
PRESENTATION
Ethos Capital will host a webcast presentation at 10h00 on Wednesday 23 September 2026 covering
the results relating to the year ended 30 June 2026, and outlook. A copy of the presentation will be
available for download on the Company’s website at
https://ethoscapital.mu/investors/reports-results/
Participants can obtain access via the following link:
https://www.diamondpass.net/3211213
CORPORATE INFORMATION
Directors
Yvonne Stillhart (Chairperson)
Kevin Allagapen
Michael Pfaff
Peter Hayward-Butt
Yuvraj Juwaheer
Senior Advisors (Officers)
Jonathan Matthews (CEO)
Mphumelelo Mkwanazi (CFO)
Investment Advisor
Ethos Management Company Proprietary Limited
Workshop 17
3rd Floor, North Tower
Hyde Park Corner
6th Road
Hyde Park, 2196
Company Secretary and Registered Office
Ocorian
6th Floor, Tower A
1 Exchange Square
Wall Street
Ebene
Mauritius
Auditors
Deloitte & Touche
Level 7, Standard Chartered Tower
19 Cybercity
Ebene
Mauritius
Deloitte & Touche
5 Magwa Crescent
Waterfall City
Johannesburg, 2090
Listing
JSE Limited
Abbreviated name: ETHOSCAP
JSE code: EPE
Sector: Financials – Closed End Investments
Transfer Secretaries
Computershare Investor Services Proprietary Limited
15 Biermann Avenue
Rosebank, 2196
Sponsor
Rand Merchant Bank (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited)
1 Merchant Place
Cnr Fredman Drive & Rivonia Road
Sandton, 2196
Disclaimer
This announcement is extracted from the audited financial statements but is itself not audited
Ebene, Mauritius (with simultaneous circulation in Johannesburg)
23 September 2026
Date: 23/09/2026 07:05:00
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