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Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) is a South African investment firm active in the fields of gaming, hotels, properties, mining, transport and media. Based in Cape Town, it was founded in 1973 and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It is also the majority owned of eMedia Investments, owner of e.tv, the first South African free-to-air private television channel.
Johnny Copelyn, a unionist and former politician, is its CEO since 1997.
In 1997, Johnny Copelyn left the parliament to run 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. [1]
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. [2] 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. [3] In January 2006, four of Johnnic's directors, including Ramaphosa, resigned from the subsidiary. [4]
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 [5] Barbara Hogan left a few days later, similar to what happened to Golding, after accusations of political interference on e.tv. [6] Fallout from these resignations caused e.tv's CEO Bronwyn Keene-Young to withdraw from her post. [7] On 1 December 2014, it announced that it would buy back 300 million rand from the management. [8]
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. [9]