South Africa’s biggest private asset manager gets R400 billion boost

Ninety One has made a significant recovery in its 2026 financial year, which saw the asset manager make a return to positive net flows.

This, alongside the finalisation of Ninety One’s 15-year agreement with Sanlam, saw the company’s assets under management (AUM) reach £171.8 billion (R3.9 trillion as at the end of March 2026), cementing its top spot among South Africa’s biggest private asset managers.

Ninety One released its results for the year through March 2026 on Wednesday, 3 June, which revealed a strong recovery for the asset manager.

Since 2022, many of the asset manager’s key metrics have underperformed, but the 2026 financial year has marked a notable turnaround.

For example, Ninety One’s AUM was £143.9 billion (R3.16 trillion) in 2022, and had dropped to a low of £126.0 billion (R2.76 trillion) in 2024. 

While there was a slight recovery in 2025 to £130.8 billion (R2.87 trillion), the asset manager saw a remarkable 31% increase in 2026 to £171.8 billion (R3.9 trillion at end-March).

This surge in AUM reflects the finalisation of Ninety One’s 15-year strategic agreement with Sanlam, which brought in an additional £18.3 billion (R401.19 billion) in AUM.

This transaction, which includes the acquisition of Sanlam Investment Management and the establishment of Ninety One’s strategic relationship with Sanlam, was completed during the 2026 financial year. 

Under this agreement, Ninety One has become Sanlam’s primary active investment manager for single-managed local and global products, with preferred access to Sanlam’s extensive South African distribution network. 

Sanlam is Africa’s largest non-banking financial services group, while Ninety One is South Africa’s largest private asset manager.

Sanlam has also agreed to serve as an anchor investor in Ninety One’s international private and specialist credit investment strategies. 

“The transaction offers an opportunity to reach deeper into the South African savings market than before, and the long-term nature of the 15-year agreement is a meaningful vote of confidence in the future of South Africa,” Ninety One CEO and founder Hendrik du Toit said.

Ninety One booming

While the Sanlam partnership brought in an additional £18.3 billion (R401.19 billion) in AUM for Ninety One, it is not the only factor that drove the asset manager’s AUM 31% higher year-on-year.

Ninety One also benefited from a return to positive net inflows in 2026, as the firm experienced a major turnaround in client demand.

It saw net inflows of £2.8 billion (R61.38 billion) for the year, a notable turnaround from the net outflows of £4.9 billion (R107.44 billion) seen in 2025.

The firm also reported a far stronger financial performance for 2026, with revenue up 9% to £763.3 million (R16.74 billion), and net revenue up 9.35% to £650.2 million (R14.26 billion).

Its profit after tax rose by 2.27% to £153.5 million (R3.37 billion), while basic earnings per share rose by 1.74% to 17.5 pence (R3.84).

Ninety One also reported that its three-year firm-wide investment outperformance successfully recovered to 69% in 2026.

This metric has experienced some wild swings over the past five years, dropping from 68% in 2022 and 71% in 2023 to a low of 43% in 2024, before recovering to 59% in 2025 and reaching 69% in 2026.

On the back of these strong results, Ninety One declared a final dividend of 7.4 pence (R1.62) per share, bringing its full-year dividend to 13.4 pence (R2.94).

The table below shows how Ninety One’s AUM has changed over the past five financial years.

Note that the ZAR figures throughout the article and in the table above were converted from GBP on the morning of Wednesday, 3 June, except for 2026’s figure, which reflects Ninety One’s AUM as of end-March 2026.