It’s unlikely that you will find a South African in the country who has access to the radio who doesn’t know ‘Steve from bleep bank’. Between FNB’s overwhelming marketing campaign, its definitive move to customer-centric banking and its branding facelift, one has to wonder what the costs have been, and if the juice has been … Read more
Saving for retirement is a hot issue in South Africa right now. New legislation to be introduced next year will make it much simpler for us to save for retirement – with a deduction for tax of a straight 27.5% of income saved up to a maximum of R350 000. Jean Lombard of Glacier by … Read more
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s largest insurer by market value, Sanlam, posted an expected 28 percent jump in half-year earnings on Thursday as its diversification into other African markets and Asia paid of. The insurer said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 220.2 cents in the six months to end-June, from 171.4 cents a year ago. Headline EPS, the … Read more
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Sanlam Ltd, South Africa’s largest insurer by market value, plans to spend up to 550 million rand ($52 million) to increase its stake in the insurance arm of India’s Shriram Group to 49 percent by the end of the year, its chief executive said on Thursday. The company, which has a 3.3 billion rand … Read more
 ETF veteran Helena Conradie recently moved into the CEO’s office at Satrix after spending 14 years mostly as the chief investment officer at South Africa’s passive fund pioneer. Much has changed during that time, with Satrix now attracting ever growing investment flows. But Conradie doesn’t believe in an all-or-nothing approach, arguing that there is also … Read more
Sanlam shareholders have been advised that the Group’s diluted Headline Earnings per share and diluted earnings per share attributable to shareholders for the six months ended 30 June 2014 are expected to exceed that reported in respect of the corresponding period in 2013 by between 25% and 30%. Normalised Headline Earnings per share, which exclude … Read more
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s Pan Africa Insurance Holdings first-half pretax profit fell by 42 percent due to a decline in investment income, triggering an 8 percent fall in its stock. The company, controlled by South African insurer Sanlam, said investment returns fell by 59 percent to 221 million shillings ($2.52 million) in the period ending June, leading to a … Read more
African Bank Investments better known as Abil, sent shockwaves through the markets today with its announcement that it was expecting headline losses of R6.4bn, and that CEO of 23 years, Leon Kirkinis would be stepping down immediately. Abil’s share price dipped to prices it hadn’t seen since 1997, and closed 60.76% down on the day … Read more
As the share price of Abil was plunging to a third of yesterday’s value (down from 688c to 250c), head of equities at Sanlam, Patrice Rassou, offered a large shareholder’s perspective of the fall and fall of Abil, once a darling of the South African investment community. This morning’s news that with further uncovering of … Read more
By Alec Hogg Spent a memorable evening in Durban yesterday as part of the city’s first “Insiders” panel – a Glacier by Sanlam thought leaders initiative. As often happens, the most interesting discussions happen afterwards. Like David Shapiro’s sharing of his harrowing experience in 1990 when he discovered a ring of front-running crooks. That happened … Read more