South African life insurer MMI Holdings will give a 36 zar cents per share to its investors following a profitable H1 for its six months which ended on December 31, 2018.  “The R1.6 billion of normalised headline earnings is in line with the Reset and Grow targets, and we believe this was a pleasing result in the current operating environment,” the life insurer indicated in the summary of its financial information for the period which ended December 31, 2018.  

These performances were due to an improvement in the South African life insurance market but also to extraordinary revenues from some of its investments. Nevertheless, it recorded a decrease in its stock investments in the wake of the economic conditions in South Africa during the 2018 fiscal year.

The positive development appears like a winning bet made by the firm. Indeed, last year, it decided to reinvest its ZAR2 billion profit to repurchase some of its shares it deemed undervalued by 20% compared with their intrinsic values.

The firm’s managers ensure that it could double its profit by 2021.
On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, its stock went up twice on March 11 and 12, 2019 gaining more than 5%. It ended the trading day of March 12, 2019, at ZAR17.7, a level it never reached since December 19, 2018.

Idriss Linge