SA CEOs in London find investors warming to South Africa

Cumesh Moodliar, Investec South Africa’s CEO, is in London this week, and what he is hearing from investors carries a tone he and his peers have not felt in years: confidence. At Investec’s 2026 South African CEO Conference in the British capital, the country’s business case is drawing strong interest, and the people presenting it say the mood has shifted.

Moodliar spoke to Stephen Grootes about what he is seeing on the ground. His account is of a South African business community that arrived presenting a confident, united face, and of investors responding to what they believe exists in broader SA Inc.

The gathering runs over four days. For the first two, UK CEOs engage with institutional investors; for the following two, South African CEOs sit down with the international investor base. More than 90% of the investors registered hold emerging market mandates, meaning the people in the room are precisely those whose mandates include countries like South Africa. The event follows the South African CEO Conference, which this year marks its 25th edition, and with South Africa competing for global capital, it serves as a gauge of investor appetite, of confidence in structural reforms, and of perceptions of the evolving political landscape.

What those investors are finding, he reports, is strong interest in South Africa and in the potential investment thesis for the country right now. “There is a different sense of confidence and a view that the direction the country is moving in right now is the right direction,” he says.

Investors point to several key factors: exposure to the commodity cycle, attractive valuations in parts of the South African equity market, an improving sovereign debt trajectory, reform momentum, and established investable businesses with international relevance. That last point, Moodliar explains, relates to large corporates that have shown the opportunity and ability to become relevant as pan-African players, operating beyond South Africa’s borders and onto the rest of the continent.

Meanwhile, the conference has also surfaced a story of progress alongside unfinished work. Moodliar highlights the turnaround taking place in sectors such as energy, an area where change has been visible and where investors have taken note. Attention has now shifted to ports and rail, where people want to see investable business cases and to build on what they believe the opportunity there could be.

The gaps, though, are real, and he does not shy away from them. “We still have a lot of work to do. Just think of our fixed capital investment which is probably running at around 14%. Go back five or six years and we were closer to 20%. If you’re a developing or emerging market that’s developing, you really would be focusing on being closer to 25%, so there is a gap to be closed.”

That arithmetic matters for anyone thinking about the country’s future. Fixed capital investment is what builds infrastructure, expands capacity and creates the conditions for growth, and the distance between where South Africa stands and where a developing economy should aim to be represents a substantial challenge.

Even so, the message from Investec is a positive one. While acknowledging the work still ahead, Moodliar reiterates that the bank believes South Africa now has a more realistic business case to put forward. For the executives who travelled to London to make that case, and for the investors weighing it, whether that confidence translates into the capital the country still needs is the question the next five years will answer.