Momentum Group has raised its interim dividend by 29% to 110 cents per share after reporting a solid set of half-year results, even as the group exercised caution in anchoring the payout at the lower end of its new distribution range. The declaration covers the six months ended December 2025 and brings the group’s total distributions over the past 18 months to a cumulative high, building on the record normalised headline earnings of R6.26 billion it posted for the full year ended June 2025.
Normalised headline earnings for the period rose 8% to R3.7 billion, while operating profit increased 10% to R3.1 billion. Normalised headline earnings per share came in 12% higher at 274.9 cents. The interim dividend of 110 cents per share represents a payout ratio of 40% of normalised headline earnings — at the lower end of the group’s target range of 40% to 60% — a level the board described as appropriate given recent volatility in global financial markets. Return on equity held at 24%, comfortably ahead of the group’s stated target of 20%.
The earnings were driven by a broad set of contributors across the group’s diversified insurance and investment portfolio. Life annuity profits within Momentum Investments, improved new business profitability at Metropolitan Life, higher group risk earnings at Momentum Corporate, continued underwriting strength at Momentum Insure, and growth in underwriting profit and fee income at Guardrisk all contributed. The exception was Momentum Retail, where earnings fell due to yield curve movements. The group’s solvency levels remain within target range, and it continues to invest selectively in both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. CEO Jeanette Marais identified three structural drivers behind the result: underwriting profitability remaining at elevated levels, rising markets lifting assets under management and fee income, and persistency staying strong across all business lines.
The present value of new business premiums rose 11% to R43.3 billion, driven by Momentum Investments, Momentum Corporate, and Momentum Africa. The value of new business, however, fell 15% year on year to R238 million, due to a shift away from higher-margin guaranteed annuity sales towards living annuities. Marais acknowledged the decline but noted that value of new business improved 25% on a sequential six-month basis, and that most business units are compensating for the reduction in guaranteed annuity margins through volume and mix improvements elsewhere. Increasing value of new business margins remains a stated strategic priority for management.
The group’s digital transformation programme is emerging as a tangible earnings contributor rather than a future-dated aspiration. Momentum has 60 active digital and artificial intelligence initiatives across risk mitigation, cost efficiency, and adviser enablement, of which seven alone have generated R40 million in savings by automating processes. Marais has framed AI as a compounding structural advantage, with the next phase focused on scaling the initiatives already delivering results and embedding intelligent automation across the group’s operational infrastructure.
The most consequential strategic development of the half-year was the Bonitas Medical Fund administration contract, which took effect in January 2026 after Bonitas ended its 40-year relationship with Medscheme. As detailed on Momentum Group’s investor relations centre, the transaction added more than 700,000 beneficiaries to Momentum Health’s administration book, increasing the group’s market share in medical scheme administration to approximately 25% and establishing it as the third-largest medical scheme administrator in South Africa, trailing only Discovery Health and Medscheme. The transfer is the largest single migration of a medical scheme between administrators in South African history, and gives Momentum a significantly enhanced platform for cross-selling health and wellness products across a materially larger client base.
On the governance front, Tyrone Soondarjee was appointed as independent chair of the Momentum Group boards on 18 March 2026, with immediate effect. Soondarjee had served as interim chair since November 2025, following the resignation of Paul Baloyi. The group’s financial targets for the 2027 financial year — normalised headline earnings of R7 billion, return on equity of 20%, and a value of new business margin of 1% to 2% — remain unchanged and, on the basis of the current trajectory, within reach.