JSE-listed technology group iOCO has regained majority black ownership. Black shareholders now hold 56.47% of the business, up from 44.66% a year ago. The rise of almost 12 percentage points puts the company, formerly known as EOH, back above the 51% level at which a business counts as black-owned under South Africa’s broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) codes.
The figure comes from a new B-BBEE certificate dated 29 October and issued by the verification agency EmpowerLogic. It shows black women hold 21.64% of the company, black youth 5.73% and black new entrants 3.32%. iOCO also kept its Level 1 B-BBEE contributor rating, the highest available, for an eighth year in a row.
Group chief executive Rhys Summerton and chief financial officer Ashona Kooblall said the result supported the group’s view of transformation as part of its long-term strategy. They said that strategy focuses on skills, employment, supplier participation and access to the technology sector.
| Measure (2026 financial year) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Black ownership | 56.47% (up from 44.66%) |
| Black women ownership | 21.64% |
| B-BBEE rating | Level 1, eighth consecutive year |
| Recognised skills development spend | R89m |
| Youth placed on learnerships | 160 |
| People with disabilities given permanent jobs | 73 |
| Skills spend on people with disabilities | R7.3m |
| Black-owned SMMEs supported | 35 |
| Recognised SMME spend | R16m |
The increase follows changes in the share register. In the year to 31 July, the Government Employees Pension Fund, Africa’s largest pension fund, raised its holding from 5.23% to 6.42%. Lebashe Investment Group’s stake fell from 17% to 14.36% over the same period. Mianzo Investment Management lifted its holding to 10.66% in October 2025. Under the codes, shares held through pension funds and asset managers on behalf of black beneficiaries can count towards a listed company’s black ownership.
Ownership has commercial weight. It is a priority element of the B-BBEE scorecard, and empowerment status is a factor in public sector tenders. Large private companies also score their suppliers’ B-BBEE credentials when buying. That matters for an IT services group whose earlier troubles began with government work.
In 2019 an ENSafrica investigation at EOH found governance failures and about R1.2bn in suspicious transactions, mostly linked to public sector contracts. The group sold eight legacy businesses between November 2023 and July 2024 and rebranded as iOCO in December 2024. By the end of January 2026 it had finished the cost-cutting and decentralisation phases of its turnaround.
The financial recovery has followed. Profit after tax rose 39% to R357m in the year to July 2026, helped by stronger margins and a 32% drop in net finance costs to R61m. In the first half, revenue grew 3.5% to R2.83bn, the group’s first organic growth in several years. iOCO has since agreed its first acquisition in eight years, MySky, which is expected to add about R80m in annual revenue. Its shares are still 8.26% lower over five years.
Beyond ownership, iOCO ran 39 learning programmes in digital skills, data and AI, leadership and workforce development. These logged 17,310 learning hours across 1,840 active learners. Women made up 60% of learnership participants and 56% of leadership-development enrolments. The 73 people with disabilities it hired took its total staff with disabilities to 123. It also funded 53 tertiary bursaries and gave AI-enabled devices to 208 high-school learners.