Momentum pumping money into Africa

The first half of Momentum’s 2026 financial year is off to a strong start, with the company’s insurance, health and global businesses delivering positive performances.

This comes as the insurer has been implementing its Impact strategy, aimed at driving operational efficiency and stronger client engagement.

On Thursday, 19 March, Momentum released its results for the six months through December 2025.

The company reported relatively flat insurance revenue of R30.39 billion, marking a less than 1% increase from the first half of its 2025 financial year.

However, its insurance service result grew by 12.35% to R4.53 billion, while its investment income increased by 3.21% to R19.58 billion.

Momentum reported total comprehensive income of R3.33 billion for the six-month period, representing a 4.03% decrease from the previous year.

The company’s operating profit increased by 10% to R3.13 billion, which it attributed to higher contract service margin (CSM) releases across its life businesses, aided by a larger CSM opening balance, which reflects the underlying growth in Momentum’s core life insurance businesses.

Momentum recorded earnings per share of 259.9 cents, a 6% increase, and headline earnings per share of 274.4 cents, a 13% increase.

From a segmental perspective, Momentum Investments reported fewer onerous contracts following the repricing of the back-to-back whole life product.

This segment also benefited from positive longevity experience variance on life annuities and higher asset-based fees following an increase in assets under management. 

The company’s Metropolitan Life division delivered improved new business profitability and positive mortality experience variance. 

Momentum Corporate achieved robust results supported by good underwriting profits and higher market variances, while Guardrisk achieved solid growth in underwriting profit and investment income.

The Momentum Insure segment also delivered strong underwriting results, and Momentum Health noted an improvement in operating profit, aided by overall membership growth. 

Momentum noted a turnaround in its Africa division, saying operating profit in this segment was driven by positive contributions from all countries across the life, asset management and health administration businesses. 

The company deployed R185 million into this segment over the six-month period, the most of any division. This forms part of the group’s Impact strategy, which involves updating the Momentum Africa business model and operating systems to enable optimal delivery on strategic outcomes.

The company reported that Momentum Retail’s operating profit was impacted by lower market variances following a reduction in the yield curve and a change in the ultimate spot rate following the reduced inflation rate target. 

In India, Momentum recorded a widened operating loss, which is attributed to a higher base in the prior period, which included a one-off gain. 

Excluding this, the year-on-year result for India improved and was supported by strong gross written premium growth.

On the back of these results, Momentum declared an interim dividend of 110 cents, marking a 29% increase from its previous half-year dividend.