FD Risto Ketola: From a delivery perspective, the group is in better shape than it has been for years.
Eighteen months into its three-year Reset and Grow turnaround strategy, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings has reported good operational results amidst a challenging economic environment.
On 5 March, Momentum Metropolitan announced its interim results, reporting increased diluted normalised headline earnings to R1.8 billion. This increase signifies a growth of 10 percent year-on-year. Diluted normalised headline earnings per share increased by 12 percent to 118 cents. The group also reported an ordinary dividend of 40 cents per ordinary share, an increase of 14 percent.
About the results, Momentum Metropolitan FD Risto Ketola said:
“The highlight of the results, to me, has been our ability to deliver ongoing improvements in client service, product quality and intermediary experience while keeping costs effectively flat, year-on-year. From a delivery perspective, the group is in better shape than it has been for years, particularly in various retail operations.”
Other highlights include:
- The growth of new business volumes across the South African retail operations by 13 percent.
- Momentum Investments showed 22 percent growth year-on-year.
- The value of new business for the South African retail operations increased by 24 percent year-on-year.
- Momentum Life’s earnings improved by 5 percent to R483 million.
- Guardrisk half-year earnings increased by 15 percent to R165 million.
- Metropolitan Retail’s normalised headline earnings improved to R349 million, up 5 percent.
The group also retained a Level 1 B-BBEE status for the second year in a row, having been the first large insurer to obtain Level 1 status.
Momentum Metropolitan CEO Hillie Meyer said looking ahead at the next 18 months, the group will continue to focus on the Reset and Grow strategy. “We have already successfully executed on most of our plans for the ‘Reset’ phase and will increasingly shift our energy onto the ‘Growth’ objectives. We will invest carefully in new revenue-generating opportunities and in improving ways of work while maintaining a clear focus on running the core South African life insurance operations optimally.”
