Sanlam, Zimnat’s parent company banks growth prospects on outside South Africa operations
Insurance24 Reporter
South African insurer, Sanlam, who are the largest shareholder in local insurer Zimnat says growth prospects outside of South Africa remain more positive with the improvement in economic conditions likely to persist in the medium term across most regions where it operate.
Sanlam, a financial and insurance group acquired a 40% shareholding in Zimnat in a deal worth $11,5 million and has operations across the region and Africa.
“Prospects for South Africa will remain muted for the remainder of 2017 and 2018.” “Growth prospects outside of South Africa remain more positive with the improvement in economic conditions likely to persist in the medium term across most regions where we operate,” the company said in its interim 2017 results released this morning.
Sanlam operates in 35 countries in Africa while Zimnat operates four subsidiaries in the country which include general insurance, life assurance, and microfinance and asset management.
Zimnat has been a leading player in the Zimbabwean life assurance and short-term insurance industries since 1946. The Group has a good credit rating of A- for both the life assurance and short-term insurance businesses, and an asset base of over $92 mln.
Meanwhile, Sanlam saw first-half new business volumes decreasing 4 percent to 110 billion rand, while net fund inflows dropped 13 percent. Normalized attributable earnings climbed 14 percent to 4.78 billion rand ($373 million).
Namibia had a difficult six months, resulting in a marginal 2% increase in its net result from financial services and Botswana’s net result from financial services declined by 23% (down 16% in constant currency).
The Rest of Africa operations, excluding Saham Finances, grew their contribution by 37% (doubling in constant currency) with most businesses achieving strong growth.
