Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) is a South African holding company with investments in the gambling, hotels, properties, mining, transport, and media sectors. It is also the majority owner of eMedia Investments, owner of e.tv, the first South African free-to-air private television channel.
Based in Cape Town, HCI was founded in 1973 and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Johnny Copelyn, a unionist and former politician, has been the company's CEO since 1997.
History
HCI was founded in 1973 by Marcel Golding and John Copelyn.
In 1997, politician Johnny Copelyn left Parliament to lead HCI. By 2000, a number of financial institutions had lost trust in the investment company, and offered them an option to exit e.tv's control.
In 2005, Cyril Ramaphosa (at the time of Johnnic) was involved in a failed bid to take over HCI's casino and real estate assets. HCI was bidding for majority control of the company, which was the investment fund's crown jewel back then. Regulators approved HCI's takeover of Johnnic on 7 December, but with one condition, HCI would dispose of its control of the Gallagher Estate which houses the Pan-African Parliament. In January 2006, four of Johnnic's directors, including Ramaphosa, resigned from the subsidiary.
Marcel Golding resigned from his post on 22 October 2014, causing a 2% fall in shares at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. His investment in Sabido, the subsidiary that ran e.tv at the time, lacked board approval Barbara Hogan left a few days later, similar to what happened to Golding, after accusations of political interference on e.tv. Fallout from these resignations caused e.tv's CEO Bronwyn Keene-Young to withdraw from her post. On 1 December 2014, it announced that it would buy back 300 million rand from the management.
In August 2022, HCI refused a proposal to become a minority shareholder in the Venus oil deposit off Namibia. It did however own an indirect 10% share, as HCI at the time had acquired 49,9% of British company Impact Oil.
Assets As of 2026, HCI's investment holding portfolio includes:
Industry Company Year of investment Current shareholding Ref. Media and broadcasting eMedia Holdings 54.1% YFM 54% Gambling Tsogo Sun 53.1% SunWest International 20% Worcester Casino 20% Hospitality Southern Sun 45.8% Gallagher Convention Centre 100% Manufacturing Deneb Investments 84.2% Paarl-Vallei Botteleringsmaatskappy 52.7% Transport Alpine Truck and Bus 41.1% Golden Arrow Bus Services (via Frontier Transport Holdings) 80.6% Mining HCI Resources 100% Platinum Group Metals 22.5% HCI Coal 100% Oil and gas Impact Oil & Gas 51.6% Africa Energy Corp. 42.5% La Concorde Holdings 90.0% Real estate HCI Properties 100% Golf technology Inrange Golf 42.4%
References