Alexforbes enters a new era in South Africa

Alexforbes’ switch to a more capital-light model is paying off for the financial services giant, with the group having successfully exited the long-term insurance market in its 2026 financial year.

This comes after around five years of the group exiting its more capital-intensive businesses, with Alexforbes having adopted a new operating model focused on financial advice.

Now, the group is seeking to position itself as an investment destination, embarking on a three-year, group-wide initiative to establish the brand as a credible and preferred investment partner for investors in South Africa.

Alexforbes released its results for the year through March 2026 on Thursday, 11 June, which revealed a strong financial performance.

The group’s fee and commission revenue hit R6.28 billion, up 11% from the 2025 financial year. 

The company attributed this growth to higher average assets, positive investment performance, inflationary increases within its retirement client base, sustained client retention, and strong new business flows reported in its investments and retail business units.

This strong growth filtered through to Alexforbes’ bottom line, with operating profit up 12.27% to R979 million, and profit for the year up 2.68% to reach R765 million.

However, its headline and basic earnings declined over the year, down 5% and 6%, respectively, though this was due to the base effect of the performance of its discontinued operations in the prior year.

On a normalised basis, excluding this base effect, Alexforbes’ earnings were flat year-on-year.

“These outcomes are the result of consistent execution over time. We have made substantial progress in simplifying our business, strengthening accountability, and improving the way we serve clients,” CEO Dawie de Villiers said.

“What matters more is that we are taking practical steps to strengthen Alexforbes by structuring our operations to get closer to our clients, investing in technology, and keeping best advice at the heart of everything we do.”

A lighter Alexforbes

Over the past few years, Alexforbes has made a shift towards a more capital-light model, which included exiting some of its more capital-intensive businesses.

For example, in the 2022 and 2023 financial years, Alexforbes disposed of its group risk and retail life business, as well as its individual client administration business, selling both to Sanlam.

The 2026 financial year marked the finalisation of this transition, with the group officially receiving regulatory approval to fully relinquish its long-term insurance license.

By shedding these capital-intensive operations, Alexforbes sought to optimise its regulatory capital requirements, making the business more agile and freeing up some cash.

In line with this, Alexforbes has been transforming its reporting segments. Five years ago, it was segmented into Consulting, Investments/Products, and Client Services.

Now, the group has implemented a more focused, client-centric operations model with four distinct segments: Corporate, Investments, Retail, and its newly established ‘Growth Markets’.

The Growth Markets segment comprises retirement, actuarial, and investment services in regions outside of South Africa, including Namibia, Botswana, the Channel Islands, Jersey, and a representative office in Nigeria.

With this simplification project completed, Alexforbes has turned its focus to what it refers to as the ‘Investment Destination’ initiative.

This is a three-year, group-wide initiative to establish Alexforbes as a credible and preferred investment partner for investors in South Africa.

The group explained that this is a deliberate attempt to build sustained belief, demand, and conversion over time by changing how the market understands and experiences Alexforbes as an investment business.

“This ambition is designed to translate into measurable funded outcomes: higher-quality net inflows, improved asset retention, and a growing base of platform and product assets across institutional and retail channels,” it said. 

“Importantly, it supports earnings quality in an asset-based model and strengthens the durability of growth beyond a single market cycle.”