PIC takes close to R350bn knock in assets due to US-Iran war

Public Investment Corporation (PIC) CEO Patrick Dlamini told parliament the war in the Middle East between the US and Iran has taken a nearly R350bn bite out of the entity’s assets under management.

Dlamini was briefing parliament’s standing committee on finance in a virtual meeting on Wednesday morning. The conflict’s economic impact has mostly found expression in fuel price pressures due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Dlamini told the committee the asset manager, which manages funds on behalf of the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF), was doing well in terms of growing the value of assets under management, but the entity, like many others, was blindsided by the war.

“Growth over the years, and that is at the end of March 2026, is still unaudited. We are sitting at almost R3.7-trillion. Unfortunately, we were quite impacted by the geopolitics and the Iran-US-Israeli war in the Middle East.”

He said the PIC was getting closer to passing a threshold of R4-trillion in assets under management before the conflict kicked off at the end of February. Attempts by the administration of US President Donald Trump to secure a permanent ceasefire or resumption of flow of vessels through the strait have fallen flat.

“We were almost touching on R3.9-trillion in assets under management. Four weeks of the war led to us losing almost R350bn. It’s the nature of our space and of the dynamics of the markets we’re in.

“But we are hopeful that as the situation begins to recover and improve, we’ll be able to see growth in our assets under management accordingly,” Dlamini said.

According to Trustnet, up to 95% of funds around the world have lost money since the war started. Among global assets only Brent crude oil, the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s CBOE Volatility Index, commodities, and cash realised positive returns.

Global corporate bonds, global treasuries, gold and global stocks all veered into negative territory, according to Trustnet.