South Africa’s most exclusive bank weathers the storm

Investec has experienced a solid but mixed start to its 2026 financial year, with the first six months of the year seeing solid growth in earnings and net asset value in rand terms, but a slight decrease in return on equity.

Investec is widely regarded as South Africa’s most exclusive bank, with a focus on private banking, wealth management, and investment services.

The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the JSE, where it has a market cap of R121 billion.

On Thursday, 20 November, Investec released its interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2025.

These results showed that Investec’s revenue grew by 2.4% in rand terms to £1.10 billion (R24.74 billion), while its basic earnings per share increased by 6.5% to 37.8 pence (R8.92) per share.

In addition, the company grew its net asset value per share to 608.1 pence (R143.56) per share, an increase of 3.5% compared to the first half of the 2025 financial year.

The bank explained that its revenue was supported by ongoing client acquisition, client activity, growth in average lending portfolios, and continued net inflows in discretionary and annuity funds under management (FUM). 

Investec’s FUM in its Southern African wealth business increased by 13.4% to £26.5 billion (R595.93 billion). 

The company said strong net inflows in its discretionary and annuity funds of R11.5 billion were supplemented by R5.2 billion additional FUM from a strategic acquisition by its Swiss operations in September 2025. 

It should be noted that this was partly offset by non-discretionary outflows of R7.8 billion.

In addition, the company’s net interest income (NII) benefited from growth in average lending books and lower cost of funds in Southern Africa as a result of Investec’s strategy to optimise its funding pool.

However, Investec’s NII decreased by 2.1%, as these positive factors were offset by the impact of lower average interest rates. 

The bank’s non-interest revenue growth of 1.9% reflects a strong increase in fee income generated by its UK banking business, as well as higher annuity fees from its South African Wealth & Investment operations. 

In the six-month period, Investec’s return on equity was 13.6%, down slightly from 13.9% in H1 2025, but still within the group’s medium-term target range of 13% to 17%.

Investec CEO Fani Titi said these results were achieved despite a challenging macro-economic environment characterised by geopolitical uncertainty and ongoing market volatility.

“The global macro-economic environment continues to face heightened uncertainty, creating volatility in economic forecasts and financial markets,” the company said. 

Regardless, Investec expects the second half of its 2026 financial year to continue the momentum seen in the first half.

The bank declared an interim dividend of 17.5 pence (R4.13) per share.