86: Barloworld Delists After 86 Years on the JSE
Sometimes a market shift doesn’t arrive with a crash. Sometimes it arrives with a quiet removal; a familiar name simply no longer appearing on the board.
In today’s episode of Number of the Day, Francis Herd and Gareth Edwards unpack the number 86: the number of years Barloworld was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange before it delisted on 27 January 2026.
The episode opens with the “goodbye” framing; not as theatre, but as context. Because Barloworld isn’t a random ticker. As Francis explains, it’s been a large industrial presence for decades, and even after restructuring over time, it remains closely associated with heavy equipment and services - including its role as a Caterpillar dealer across southern Africa. That’s the first crucial point the conversation lands: this is not an obscure company leaving a niche corner of the exchange. It’s a legacy industrial name stepping off a public platform.
From there, the discussion turns into what the headline doesn’t spell out: why this delisting happened. Barloworld has been acquired through a Saudi-led deal anchored by Zahid Group, taking the 123-year-old company private.
Francis adds an important layer from her own on-air reporting: she says she spoke to the strategic lead on the transaction, who characterised the deal as a positive sign; an indication that there is still appetite for investing in South Africa. That’s the optimistic reading. It frames the acquisition not as extraction, but as external confidence.
The episode doesn’t stop at the optimistic reading, though. It also acknowledges the noise that followed the transaction: questions, criticism, and a dispute over whether everyone saw the deal the same way. Francis references controversy around a conflict-of-interest claim linked to the consortium structure, and she points to the idea that the deal proceeded through the relevant approval pathways.
This is where the story becomes more than “company bought, company delists”; it becomes a live example of how big deals trigger two parallel debates at once: the investment debate and the governance debate.
And then, the episode pivots into the question that actually affects viewers and listeners who don’t own a single Barloworld share: what does a delisting mean for the JSE itself?
Gareth asks it plainly: if a major company delists, is that ever good for the market? Francis answers by going back to first principles: companies list to raise capital from a wider pool of shareholders and to participate in public markets. But going public comes with trade-offs; compliance obligations, scrutiny, and what she describes as significant regulation and red tape. That tension is the beating heart of the episode: the JSE needs listings to remain deep and attractive, while some companies decide the cost of being public isn’t worth the benefit anymore.
The Barloworld example also arrives with a detail that adds heat to the conversation around incentives and deal dynamics: reporting indicates that executives received incentive payments tied to awards that would have vested had the company remained listed, including a payment disclosed for CEO Dominic Sewela as part of the broader incentive figure.
That doesn’t change the fact of the delisting; but it does change how audiences emotionally process it. It becomes easier to see why deals like this spark strong reactions: for many people, a delisting can feel like a door closing, while the people inside the room still walk away with something.
By the time the episode wraps, the number 86 has done its job. It isn’t trivia. It’s a measure of time, presence, and visibility; and a reminder that public markets don’t only grow. Sometimes they shrink in ways that only become obvious once enough familiar names are gone.
Barloworld's leaving the board is one company’s decision. But the questions it raises; about investment signals, governance trust, and why companies choose private control over public capital; are the real story listeners and viewers are left holding.