South African insurance giant going global

Santam’s latest results will provide a strong foundation for the insurer to accelerate its international expansion, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States.

Santam is South Africa’s leading general insurer, with a market share of just under 24%. It is also one of the country’s oldest companies, founded in 1918 and listed on the JSE in 1964.

On Monday, 1 September, Santam released its results for the six months ended 30 June 2025, the first half of its 2025 financial year.

These results showed a strong performance for the group, with 11.62% growth in insurance revenue to R27.50 billion.

The company’s basic earnings per share grew by 19.53% to 1,873 cents per share, while profit for the period rose by 22.54% to R2.47 billion.

These strong results exceeded the company’s longer-term targets for all of its key financial performance indicators.

A stand-out performer in these half-year results was Santam’s strong growth in gross written premium (GWP) and net earned premium (NEP).

The company pointed out that its underwriting margin fell above the upper end of the 5% to 10% target range at 11.3% and its annualised return on capital was well above the 24% target at 33%.

These results also position Santam well for its ambitious international expansion plans, with the insurer eyeing the UK market.

In the six-month reporting period, Santam announced that it had received an in-principle approval from the Lloyd’s Council to set up Santam Syndicate 1918.

This marked a significant step in realising the insurer’s international ambitions and transforming the group.

This also forms part of the group’s plan to focus on higher-margin specialist lines of business.

Santam already has a successful track record of acquiring underwriting managers in South Africa, which it now plans to expand internationally on a complementary basis to the Lloyd’s syndicate.

This follows the insurer’s acquisition of a majority stake in Avatar Holdings in the United Kingdom in July 2025

Avatar is a new start-up with a unique technology platform that can underwrite and price mid-sized corporate risks more efficiently than traditional methods. 

The mid-sized corporate market in the United States presents a significant growth opportunity for Avatar given its superior underwriting capability. 

However, Santam explained that it will initially not deploy any underwriting capacity to Avatar.

“Depending on a successful track record being established, Avatar can become a source of future new business for the Santam Syndicate,” it said. 

Santam’s investment in Avatar amounted to £3 million (R71.32 million) and was funded from the group’s available cash resources.

Santam declared an interim dividend of 590 cents per share, up from the 535 cents it declared for the six months through June 2024.