News Africa24 Sep 2026

South Africa:Major insurer chalks up record results for FY2026

| 24 Sep 2026

Momentum Group, one of South Africa's largest insurance-based financial services groups, has announced record results for the year ended 30 June 2026 (FY2026), with normalised headline earnings (NHE) increasing by 13% to ZAR7.06bn ($432m) and operating profit rising by 9% to ZAR5.97bn.

Ms Jeanette Marais, Momentum Group CEO, commenting on the financial performance, said that the ZAR7bn NHE was achieved one year earlier than originally planned.

She also said, “We’ve seen stronger operational performance across most business units, while market impacts played less of a role in the current year’s profitability. This indicates that the actual quality of earnings improved. It’s worth noting that not only is every single business profitable, but also that five of our businesses each delivered earnings of more than ZAR1bn for the year.”

Two of these five businesses, Momentum Retail and Momentum Corporate, had been delivering ZAR1bn per year over the last years. The three businesses that achieved the ZAR1bn target earlier than planned, are:

  • Metropolitan Life, which effectively executed a turnaround plan focused on improving product commerciality, digital transformation, cost reduction as well as improved productivity and better quality of business in its sales channel.

  • Momentum Investments brought its broad portfolio of businesses together behind a focused strategy, invested in technology, enhanced collaboration and vertical integration with the Group’s sales channels and improved processes, operational capabilities and client experience.

  • Guardrisk, which expanded its underwriting capability, pursued bolt-on acquisitions, diversified its earnings across industries and geographies and invested in technology and capabilities required for growth.

Ms Marais added: “Another noteworthy milestone is that our strategic partnership in India contributed positively to earnings for the first time, improving this segment’s earnings from a ZAR67m loss in the previous year to a ZAR2m profit this year. We foresee exponential growth in this health insurance business in the coming years.”

Revenue per geographical basis (12 months to 30 June 2026) in ZAR m

Business

South Africa

 

Namibia

Mauritius

Botswana

Lesotho

Others

*

Total revenue

Momentum Retail

11,026

 

-

-

-

-

11,026

Momentum Investments

7,262

 

-

-

-

568

7,830

Metropolitan Life

6,596

 

-

-

-

-

6,596

Momentum Corporate

9,423

 

-

-

-

-

9,423

Momentum Africa

-

1,235

-

488

597

94

2,414

Guardrisk

23,549

529

1,781

-

-

23

25,882

Momentum Insure

3,228

-

-

-

-

-

3,228

Momentum Health

5,336

-

-

246

305

428

6,315

India

-

-

-

-

-

9

9

Shareholders

16

-

-

-

-

-

16

Segmental total

66,436

1,764

1,781

734

902

1,122

72,739

Reconciling items

-377

-4

-

-

-

-153

-534

Total

66,059

1 760

1,781

734

902

969

72,205

Source: Momentum

*’Others’ mainly relates to operations in UK of ZAR438m, Mozambique ZAR440m and Ghana ZAR82m.

The Group has exited its operations in the Ghanaian market. In addition, it sold Momentum Mozambique Limitada after FY2026. The sale was concluded on 31 August 2026. The Group continues operations in Mozambique through other entities.


 

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