Investors in companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange will continue to receive headline earnings per share, but the closely watched figure will no longer form part of the audited IFRS financial statements.

The JSE is changing where companies present headline earnings per share in their financial results.HEPS will remain compulsory but will sit outside audited IFRS financial statements.Listed companies will no longer have to publish diluted HEPS, although mandatory diluted EPS remains.The amendments preserve a South African performance measure while aligning the exchange with IFRS 18.

The change allows Africa’s largest stock exchange to preserve one of South Africa’s most important corporate performance measures while complying with a new international accounting standard that takes effect in 2027.

Under amendments announced by the JSE on Wednesday, listed companies must still publish headline earnings per share, commonly known as HEPS, alongside their interim and annual results.

However, HEPS will be presented outside the financial information prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards.

The exchange is also removing compulsory disclosure of diluted HEPS and consolidating its rules for reconciling accounting profit with headline earnings.

The amendments are confirmed in the JSE’s August regulatory announcement on changes to its Listings Requirements.

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A South African measure confronts a global rule

The JSE’s decision addresses a regulatory problem created by IFRS 18, the new global standard governing how companies present and explain their financial performance.

JSE-listed companies must continue publishing basic HEPS, although the figure will sit outside audited IFRS statements.. [Photo by Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

HEPS is not required by international accounting rules. It is a South African measure developed to help investors distinguish a company’s underlying trading performance from gains and losses linked to certain capital transactions.

A company may, for example, record a large profit from selling an asset or a loss from impairing one. Such items can affect statutory earnings even though they may not reflect the performance of its regular operations.

Headline earnings adjust for qualifying items, while HEPS divides the resulting figure by the weighted average number of ordinary shares.

That has made HEPS one of the first numbers South African investors and analysts examine when listed companies publish results.

The JSE tested the market’s support for the measure during an earlier consultation on financial reporting rules. According to the exchange, an overwhelming majority of respondents wanted HEPS retained because it supports consistency, company comparisons and valuation analysis.

The JSE consequently decided that both primary and secondary listed companies would remain under an obligation to disclose it.

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The newly announced amendments change the location and reporting status of HEPS, rather than abolishing the measure.

Why HEPS must leave the audited IFRS results

IFRS 18⁠ introduces new rules for measures that companies use to explain their performance outside the standard figures prescribed by international accounting rules.

These are known as management-defined performance measures. Under IFRS 18, such a measure must be a subtotal of income and expenses that reflects management’s assessment of the company’s performance.

Headline earnings can constitute a subtotal, but HEPS is a per-share calculation. It therefore does not fit the standard’s definition of a management-defined performance measure.

The JSE has addressed this by treating headline earnings and headline earnings per share separately.

Headline earnings and the reconciliation used to calculate the figure will remain within the financial reporting framework. HEPS will be released at the same time but placed outside the IFRS financial statements.

For annual results, this means the HEPS figure will not sit within the financial statements covered by the auditor’s opinion. In interim reporting, it may be presented outside the formally prepared financial information.

The distinction will be important for investors reading results from 2027. HEPS will remain available and compulsory under JSE rules, but its placement will make clear that it is an exchange-required measure rather than one prescribed by IFRS.

Diluted HEPS becomes optional

The JSE is also dropping the requirement for listed companies to disclose diluted HEPS.

Diluted calculations show what earnings per share could be if instruments such as employee share options or convertible securities became ordinary shares. The addition of those potential shares can reduce the amount of earnings attributed to each share.

Companies will still have to provide basic HEPS. They may also continue publishing diluted HEPS voluntarily where they consider it useful to investors.

Africa’s largest stock exchange is simplifying its earnings rules while preserving a measure widely used by South African investors.REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

The amendment does not remove the obligation to report diluted earnings per share under international accounting rules. It applies only to diluted headline earnings per share, the JSE-specific measure.

The change follows revisions to the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants’ headline earnings guidance to accommodate IFRS 18. The diluted HEPS provisions could not be retained under the revised framework.

Investors retain the underlying calculation

A third amendment preserves the requirement for companies to show how they arrived at headline earnings.

Whenever headline earnings are disclosed, the company must provide an itemised reconciliation between statutory earnings and the earnings used to calculate the headline figure.

The JSE has moved that obligation into one place in the definitions section of its Listings Requirements. Previously, the same requirement appeared in multiple parts of the rules.

This means investors should still be able to see which gains, losses or other qualifying items were removed from accounting earnings before headline earnings were calculated.

The practical loss of information is therefore limited. Basic HEPS and its underlying reconciliation will remain available, while diluted HEPS moves from a compulsory disclosure to an optional one.

Part of the JSE’s regulatory reset

The amendments form part of the JSE’s Simplification Project, launched after companies and market participants complained that the exchange’s listing rules were too complicated and expensive to follow.

A rewritten set of Listings Requirements took effect in January 2026 after receiving regulatory approval. The JSE said the project reduced the size of its rulebook by about half and replaced repeated or complicated provisions with a simpler structure.

The latest changes reflect a different challenge. The exchange is attempting to protect the usefulness of a local earnings measure without placing it inside financial statements governed by a global standard that does not recognise the per-share calculation in the same way.

IFRS 18 replaces IAS 1 and becomes mandatory for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, although companies are allowed to adopt it earlier.