8th Sep 2026 08:44
(Alliance News) - Old Mutual Ltd reported on Tuesday that its interim profit plunged, as a dip in investment returns offset strong performance from its wealth management unit.
For the six months that ended June 30, pretax profit for the Cape Town-based financial services firm tumbled 58% to ZAR4.12 billion from ZAR9.80 billion a year earlier.
Net investment return slumped 47% to ZAR44.89 billion, from ZAR84.39 billion, weighing on the bottom-line.
Insurance revenue was down 2.4% to ZAR37.37 billion from ZAR38.27 billion.
Old Mutual said its present value of new business premiums rose 23% to ZAR40.44 billion from ZAR32.95 billion, while gross written premiums inched up 2.9% to ZAR14.93 billion from ZAR14.51 billion.
Life annual premium equivalent sales were up 21% to ZAR7.86 billion from ZAR6.47 billion, mainly driven by strong group risk and annuity sales in Old Mutual Corporate, higher living annuity and endowment sales in wealth management, as well as strong retail and corporate sales growth in Old Mutual Africa Regions.
Value of new business surged 32% to ZAR569 million from ZAR432 million. Gross flows were up 21% to ZAR128.91 billion from ZAR106.76 billion, getting a boost from strong inflows in wealth management.
Despite the elevated catastrophe losses, the net underwriting margin in Old Mutual Insure of 7.6% remained at the upper-end of the medium-term target range of 5% to 8%.
As at June 30, funds under management rose 15% to ZAR1.731 trillion from ZAR1.504 trillion at June 30, 2025, and up 5.6% from ZAR1.639 trillion at December 31, 2025.
Net interest income was up 3.8% to ZAR1.33 billion from ZAR1.28 billion, while non-interest revenue was 4.8% higher at ZAR579 million from ZAR608 million.
Old Mutual declared an interim dividend of 40 rand cents, up 8.1% from 37 cents.
Basic earnings per share was slightly down to 95.8 cents from 96.1 cents, while headline EPS fell 0.6% to 96.9 cents from 97.5 cents.
Old Mutual said it had delivered a solid first-half performance.
The Anglo-South African company named Ranen Thakurdin as chief financial officer designate to succeed Casper Troskie, who will retire on April 30, 2027. Thakurdin will formally assume the CFO role on April 1, 2027. Thakurdin is the chief risk officer.
Looking ahead, Old Mutual expects sales volumes growth to moderate over the second half of 2026, after strong first-half sales volumes that included some large non-recurring gains.
Shares in Old Mutual fell 1.7% to 59.00 pence on Tuesday morning in London, and they eased 0.6% to ZAR12.73 in Johannesburg.
By Artwell Dlamini, Alliance News senior reporter South Africa
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