Major South African insurer crushing it

Momentum is on a roll, having reported another set of strong results for its 2025 financial year, with the insurer’s earnings up over 55%.

Momentum is one of South Africa’s largest life insurers and integrated financial services companies, operating through brands like Momentum, Metropolitan, Guardrisk, and Eris Properties.

On Wednesday, 17 September, Momentum released its results for the year ended 30 June 2025, which revealed a strong performance.

The company’s insurance revenue increased by 4.34% to R61.02 billion, while its insurance service expenses rose by 5.96% to R45.25 billion.

Momentum also reported strong investment income of R37.88 billion, up 7.36% compared to the 2024 financial year. 

Overall, the company reported a net insurance and investment result of R17.74 billion, an increase of 27.12% compared to the prior year.

Momentum reported earnings of R6.12 billion for the year, up 55.36%, and basic earnings per share of 445.1 cents, up 57.33%.

The insurer said these strong results reflect the strength of the group’s diversified portfolio and disciplined execution of its Impact strategy. 

This strategy focused on boosting the company’s successful businesses with more capital and implementing turnaround strategies for underperforming units.

Momentum said a solid operational performance across business units underpinned these results.

It specifically highlighted contributions from annuity profits in Momentum Investments, improved new business profitability in Metropolitan Life, and higher earnings from the group risk business in Momentum Corporate.

In addition, the company pointed to a significantly improved underwriting result in Momentum Insure and strong underwriting performance in Guardrisk.

“Earnings were further supported by positive actuarial assumption changes and investment market returns,” the company said.

On the back of these strong results, Momentum upped its dividend payout policy to a range of 40% to 60%, compared to 33% to 50% in prior years.

Therefore, the company declared a final dividend of 90 cents per ordinary share.