Prominent South African insurer on a roll as it gears up to take on Discovery for the top spot

Momentum’s 2026 financial year is set to see another set of incredibly strong results, with the first nine months of the year experiencing a 20% increase in headline earnings.

These strong results come as Momentum is set to take over the administration of Bonitas Medical Fund on 1 June 2026. 

This takeover will make Momentum the second-largest health insurer in South Africa, just behind the current market leader, Discovery.

It also marks the biggest local transfer of a medical scheme yet, and will bring over 750,000 beneficiaries under Momentum’s administration.

On Monday, 1 June, Momentum released a trading update for the nine months through March 2026, which revealed that its 2026 financial year is off to a strong start.

For the nine-month period, Momentum’s headline earnings per share grew by 20% to 414 cents, while its earnings per share rose 17% to 401 cents.

Momentum said its strong earnings performance was underpinned by pleasing contributions across the group’s operating business units. 

Momentum Investments delivered outstanding earnings growth, driven by annuity profits and favourable equity market conditions, which supported the group’s asset-based fee income. 

Metropolitan Life also continued to grow earnings on the back of disciplined expense management, fewer onerous contracts, and positive mortality experience. 

Guardrisk and Momentum Insure’s growth benefited from sustained underwriting discipline, while Momentum Corporate and Momentum Retail delivered stable earnings contributions off a prior high earnings base.

At a group level, Momentum’s recurring premiums increased 7% to R3.30 billion, and single premiums grew by 15% to R50.23 billion.

The present value of its new business premiums rose 15% to R66.89 billion, though the value of new business (VNB) saw a modest decline of 4% to R347 million.

The company attributed this decline to Momentum Investments, where VNB dropped significantly following an industry-wide shift from life annuities toward living annuities.

This, it said, was driven by lower bond yields, which made guaranteed annuity income less attractive. 

However, Momentum noted that the VNB decline in Momentum Investments was partially offset by notable VNB recovery in Momentum Retail and Metropolitan Life.

Momentum Retail’s VNB growth was supported by better long-term savings product margins, while Metropolitan Life swung to VNB profitability following successful distribution cost rationalisation and improved funeral business commerciality.

In its nine-month trading update, Momentum also noted that its Health segment’s team has been preparing to onboard Bonitas Medical Fund.

The company is looking to ensure that people, processes, data, and systems are aligned and ready for the 1 June commencement date.

This comes after Momentum won the tender to administer the Bonitas Medical Fund, one of South Africa’s largest medical plan providers.

Bloomberg previously reported that the transfer will increase Momentum’s market share from 22% to 30%, lifting it to the number two spot in South Africa’s health insurance rankings.

It will also put Momentum just four percentage points behind competitor Discovery, which currently holds the number one spot.

Once the transfer is complete, Momentum’s number of health clients in Africa will jump to over 3.3 million and worldwide to more than 25 million.