Old Mutual reports full-year profit surge, new bank to go live in fourth quarter
The Group has spent R2.8 billion to build the bank and to secure a deposit-taking retail banking license.
Old Mutual, Johannesburg. Wikimedia Commons/Henk Viljoen
The Money Show's Stephen Grootes interviews CEO Iain Williamson after Old Mutual posts its full-year results to end-December 2024.
Old Mutual has reported a 14% rise in adjusted full-year earnings for 2024 to R6.685 billion, and a 20% jump in headline earnings to R8.826 billion.
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) were up 17% to R6.69 billion.
Despite significant investments in new growth engines, primarily in OM Bank, the Group said operating profits increased by 4% to R8.7 billion.
After its license was received, OM Bank is expected to go live in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Old Mutual declared a final dividend of 52 cents per share, with total dividends for 2024 amounting to 86 cents per share, which amounts to growth of 6%.
In conversation with Stephen Grootes, outgoing Group CEO Iain Williamson describes 2024 as a year of two halves.
"The first half was still extraordinarily tough, and then the second half saw improvement - we saw the green shoots after the formation of the GNU, inflation and interest rates coming down, the rand stabilising..."
Iain Williamson, Group CEO: Old Mutual
Williamson does note that consumers are still under a lot of pressure - the Group is not seeing debts coming down yet and consumer confidence has not fully returned, he says.
"I think the wage settlements that are all happening now in the private sector and the public wage settlement next month, will be also key to start relieving the pressure a bit more on the consumer balance sheet."
Iain Williamson, Group CEO: Old Mutual
Williamson says OM Bank is now open for deposits, and they're aiming to go live by roughly September this year.
"If on a risk-based approach we see that we're passing our internal milestones more quickly, we'll accelerate that."
Iain Williamson, Group CEO: Old Mutual
"We will be cautious about how quickly we roll it out just to make sure that we're able to scale the necessary customer service support points etcetera commensurate with customer numbers as we go."
Iain Williamson, Group CEO: Old Mutual
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