South Africa’s best-known insurance company shooting the lights out

OUTsurance Group has tripled its shareholders’ money since its listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 2022.

OUTsurance Holdings was founded in 1998 by Willem Roos, Howard Aron and René Otto, with the full backing of RMB Holdings.

The company initially focused on providing short-term insurance direct to the public and became known for its aggressive marketing campaigns.

In 2008, Youi, modelled on OUTsurance, was launched in Australia, offering short-term personal lines insurance.

Two years later, in 2010, OUTsurance Life was established in South Africa, providing basic and underwritten life insurance products.

In 2022, OUTsurance Group was listed on the JSE as part of a transition and rebrand of Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (RMI).

RMI was established as an investment company specialising in top financial services firms, including Discovery, Momentum, OUTsurance, and Hastings.

In 2014, RMI decided to shift its strategy to a more actively managed portfolio and simplify its portfolio to unlock shareholder value.

RMI achieved this by unbundling its Discovery and Momentum shares to RMI shareholders, as well as selling its stake in Hastings Group.

After the restructuring, RMI owned 89.3% of OUTsurance Holdings, which represented more than 95% of the RMI portfolio’s assets.

The decision was made to rename RMI to OUTsurance Group Limited while retaining RMI’s trading history and shareholder register.

Today, OUTsurance Group’s largest shareholders are Remgro (30.36%), Royal Bafokeng Holdings (14.03%), and the PIC (10.91%).

The company continues to invest in new opportunities, and in 2024, OUTsurance Ireland was launched, offering short-term personal lines insurance.

“Our purpose is to provide our customers with simple, high-quality insurance products backed by trust and market-leading service outcomes,” the company said.

OUTsurance Group performance

Since RMI’s transition and rebranding, OUTsurance have seen strong share price performance. Its share price returned 171% from R29.3 to R79.3 per share.

This strong share price performance translates into an annualised growth rate of 47% since the rebrand, making it one of the best-performing stocks on the JSE.

In the trailing 12 months, OUTsurance reported R34.5 billion in insurance revenue, representing a 21% increase from the previous period.

It also reported a net profit for the trailing 12 months of R4.2 billion, a 20% increase from the previous comparable period of R3.5 billion.

Based on OUTsurance Group’s current market cap, it is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 29 times earnings.