Imagination: The Satrix story

By Carel Nolte

There are people who quietly shift the trajectory of an entire industry. People who do the work, hold the line, build with integrity, and in the process open doors that were previously bolted shut. Helena Conradie is one of those people.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing her as a friend, a collaborator and as someone whose influence on EasyEquities runs deeper than most people realise. When Satrix and EasyEquities partnered back in 2015, it wasn’t just a deal. It was a catalytic moment for access in South Africa. Removing minimums, widening the investment on-ramp, and accelerating a culture where ordinary people could, finally, own a piece of the market. That partnership shaped us. It still does.

So when Helena spoke at the 25th birthday of Satrix last week, marking a quarter century since South Africa’s first ETF, I knew it would be worth sharing. Not just because it’s beautifully written (it is), or because it captures the history with clarity (it does), but because it reminds us why this work matters. Why access matters. Why imagination matters.

It also reminds me how far the ETF landscape has come — and how much broader and richer it is today. Every Satrix ETF is on EasyEquities, of course, and you can buy them in ZAR, USD, EUR or AUD. And the world continues to evolve. Actively managed ETFs are now part of that universe too, and we’re proud that EasyEquities has its own AMETFs in the mix, giving investors even more ways to build their portfolios without complexity or high hurdles.

This blog is part of our “Company We Keep” series on CN&CO — a celebration of the people and partners who have shaped our journey, and who continue to inspire us. Helena is firmly in that camp.

Satrix: A Reflection

Helena Conradie

25th birthday event, JSE, 27 November 2025

1.    “A reason to imagine”

A few weeks ago, I was in Zambia on a photo safari. We were driving through one of the small villages near South Luangwa. Dust hanging in the air, kids running between houses, goats crossing the road… that late afternoon glow that photographers like me live for.

And then, just for a moment, the car slowed down, and I saw a small red Airtel kiosk on the side of the road.

Faded paint. Bright posters. A queue of people collecting cash, airtime.

And above that tiny window were four words.

“A reason to imagine.”

And for days after, those four words stayed with me. Because those four words… are our entire story.

Not just Satrix’s story. But South Africa’s story.

And the story of what inclusion really means, when you strip the cliché out of it. In the end, that tiny kiosk captured something so powerful:

A reason to imagine is what access creates.

A reason to imagine is what Satrix has given people for 25 years. And it’s what you, this team, are still creating today.

2.    What it means to imagine, in South Africa

In a country like ours, imagination is not a luxury. It’s survival.

It’s dignity. It’s agency.

It’s the difference between “this is my life” and “this could be my life.”

And when you think about it, that’s all investing really is:

An invitation to imagine a different future. And a vehicle to make that imagination real.

For 25 years, Satrix has quietly, and sometimes loudly, held that invitation open.

And that is why this anniversary is not just about one ETF turning 25.

This is about a generation of people who now see themselves as investors. People who didn’t grow up around wealth, but who now own a slice of the market.

That is a profound legacy.

And this morning, I want to honour that legacy properly.

To honour the people who built it, the people who carried it,

and the people who are shaping its next chapter.

3.    Where it all began, the unexpected village

Let me take you back, because sometimes we forget that the world we now take for granted was once held together by courage and duct tape.

1999. 2000.

A time when the idea of indexing in South Africa was… well… let’s just say we were not exactly the cool kids.

In the US, they were still calling indexing “Bogle’s folly.”

And here at home, passive didn’t really exist. We didn’t even have the vocabulary for it yet.

And yet, somehow, the right people, in the right places, said yes to something nobody fully understood.

Andre Perold, then on the Gensec Board and Head of Harvard Business School, among others, championed the idea and had conversations about ETFs – the SPDRs in the US – with Mike Brown.

Mike and Adam Bunkell at Gensec Bank were encouraged to innovate, and that’s exactly what they did.

Then Gensec, Corp Capital and the JSE began exploring how something like an ETF could work when there wasn’t even a regulatory framework for it.

The JSE said yes to something the exchange had literally never done before. They were only listing individual shares at the time. Funds were not meant to be on their platform.

These founders now had to raise the seed capital needed to launch the Satrix40. They weren’t looking for billions; their dream target was R100-200 million.

And then came the meeting that changed everything.

They presented to the Sanlam Investment Team (Gensec Asset Management). The idea found its moment, its home.

Raymond Goldblatt, the CIO at the time, didn’t offer R100m. He didn’t offer R200m. He said, “We think it is a good idea” and he wrote a cheque.

A big one.

A R2bn one.

Gensec Asset Management, an active house, said yes to funding something called “an ETF” even though it made absolutely no sense in the active world.

And here’s the irony that I think we all need to appreciate:

The dominant passive player in South Africa was born inside an active house.

The first ETF existed because industry players across the ecosystem collaborated. The JSE, Deutsche Bank, Corpcapital, Gensec Bank and Gensec Asset Management, people who were not meant to build a passive industry, were brave enough to acknowledge a new idea, a new industry, the passive industry.

That is what happens when you build with imagination.

And when you allow unlikely partners to create something new, together.

4.    The crucial detail, the first client before the first ETF

Many people think Satrix started the day the ETF listed in November 2000. But the real beginning?

January 2000.

Mcubed, with Anne Cabot Alletzhauser and Sonja Saunderson (yes the same Sonja that is today the CIO of EPPF), became the first institutional index client.

They gave us R800 million to manage.

That was the first time I stepped into the story, part of that early portfolio management team.

So, when the ETF listed later that year, with the R2bn seed capital… our small index team, still inside an active manager, was already managing institutional money.

The ETF didn’t stand alone.

It was part of a bigger ecosystem from day one.

And that matters.

Because it was the strength of the combination of institutional and retail business, the whole ecosystem, that eventually allowed us to do things like drop the Satrix40 fee, stop the price war, and still build a thriving business.

Everything connected.

Everything depended on the village.

5.    The name “Satrix” and the courage to experiment

And of course, the name.

Tracks. Tricks. A-tracks, B-tracks, Matrix…

Mike and his team experimented with a few options and then he said: “What about SA index trackers? SATRIX?”

Everyone looked around the room and said, “Well Yes… actually that works.”

And that was it.

No brand agency. No strategy deck. Just people imagining something new.

6.    The 2012 game-changer: Sanlam buys the Deutsche stake

Fast forward to 2012.

For years, Satrix was a joint venture.

Originally Corpcapital and the JSE. And then Deutsche Bank and Sanlam.

But by 2012, it was clear that someone had to hold the full vision, Satrix needed a single home. And no-one, neither Sanlam nor DB wanted to let go.

And Johan van Zyl, Johan van der Merwe, Armien Tyer and Francois Kellerman believed deeply that Sanlam should own this business 100%, even though the house was still largely active.

So, in a scene that almost feels like a movie-clip, to break the deadlock, Deutsche Bank and Sanlam agreed to a Texas Auction, a mechanism where both parties write down the price at which they are willing to buy the other 50%.

Both envelopes go onto the table. Both are opened at the same time. And the higher bid buys out the other.

No negotiation. No second round. Just conviction.

We all know the outcome…Sanlam’s number was higher.

Overnight, Sanlam became the parent of the largest passive manager in the country – one committed to nurturing it, investing in it and giving it the future it deserved.

Again, the power of visionaries saying yes.

7.       2015, SatrixNOW and the new era of access

Then came 2015.

The partnership with EasyEquities.

The decision to take the old Satrix Investment Plan, R300 minimum, and migrate it onto a platform that would become SatrixNOW… with no minimums at all.

This was huge.

You cannot imagine how many barriers fell that day.

We didn’t just say “access”. We made it real.

And again, it was collaboration. Partnership.

Co-creation across boundaries. That is Satrix at its best.

8.       The People’s Choice era and the rise of a people’s brand

Over the years, the People’s Choice Award, eight years in a row, told us something important:

South Africans didn’t just invest in Satrix. They believed in Satrix.

And not because we shouted the loudest, but because we consistently, authentically, showed up for them.

The brand became the people’s brand because the purpose was and still is real.

9.       Today, where Satrix stands

And look at where the village’s work has led. From 1 ETF to 36 ETFs listed on the JSE.

From R800 million to R300 billion in assets under management.

From a small index team sitting last on the agenda… to the dominant passive manager in South Africa.

To a business that is now shaping how ordinary people build wealth. To partnerships with EasyEquities, BlackRock, Amundi, and others.

To global recognition, including the Harvard Business School case study.

This is a team, you, standing on a world-class foundation.

One that was built with imagination, purpose, inclusion, and a whole lot of courage.

10.       A message to the team, “This is your inheritance”

I want to speak directly to the Satrix team here this morning.

Today, you’re working in a world where ETFs are mainstream, passive is respected, and Satrix is a market leader.

But it wasn’t always like that.

For the first decade, we weren’t growing a business, we were fighting for the right to exist.

We were the last slot on many agendas, and often the slot that fell of the agenda entirely.

I still remember travelling across the country with the retail team, trying to explain smart beta to rooms full of advisors, some curious, some sceptical, some fast asleep.

And after one presentation in Bloemfontein, an advisor said to me: “Juffrou’tjie, as jy dit in Afrikaans gesê het, het ons dalk verstaan.”

We laugh now.

But these were the years when passive investing was the strange new cousin at the family gathering.

Yet those years mattered. They built resilience.

They built credibility.

You inherited something extraordinary. But you are not maintaining a legacy.

You are shaping its next chapter.

And your chapter will be written in a world that is more complex, faster, more competitive, and more interconnected than anything we faced in 2000. You’re now in a market where the very active managers who resisted ETFs for years are launching their own. It’s strange, it’s exciting – and it’s also a quiet acknowledgement that the ETF as a vehicle, and the idea of access, have won.

But you know what hasn’t changed?

The need for people to have a reason to imagine. You hold that responsibility now.

You are the custodians of access.

The custodians of inclusion.

The custodians of a 25-year story that started long before any of us knew what it would become.

And you are already doing it beautifully.

11.       The future, what do we imagine now?

So… what does the next generation of Satrix imagine? A world where access is even more seamless.

Where inclusion goes far beyond marketing language.

Where data, technology, and partnerships unlock possibilities we haven’t even considered yet.

Where active and passive collaborate even more meaningfully.

Where Satrix continues to lead not because it is the oldest, but because it is the most imaginative.

The world is changing. South Africa is changing.

And Satrix, at its core, has always been built for moments exactly like this.

12.       Back to Zambia

Let me take you back to that little Airtel kiosk in Zambia. The dust. The late afternoon sun.

A few people gathering to draw money, to support a family, buy food, pay school fees, manage dreams.

And those four words:

A reason to imagine. That is all people need. A reason.

A doorway.

A starting point. An invitation.

For 25 years, Satrix has given South Africans that invitation.

And for the next 25 years… it will be your hands that hold it open.

So this morning, on the 25th anniversary of Satrix40, the first ETF in South Africa, I want to thank the village that built this business.

I want to thank every brave person who said yes when it made no logical sense.

And I want to thank this team… for carrying the story forward.

Here’s to the next generation. Here’s to imagination.

And here’s to the simple, powerful idea at the heart of everything we do:

Give people a reason to imagine… and they will own the market.