adminCape Town — Old Mutual yesterday posted strong third quarter results with gross sales up 31 percent to R172.53 billion. Investors initially cheered the news, sending the share price up over 3 percent to reach a new record high of R47.15. However, by 16:30 the shares were changing hands up only 0.57 percent at R45.89 from the previous close.
Old Mutual Emerging Markets delivered a strong performance, despite weaker economic conditions in South Africa, the company said in a trade update for the three months to end-September. Gross sales were up 22 percent to R52.8bn.
Rest of Africa gross sales were 32 percent higher than the third quarter of 2014 due to “strong asset management flows in Kenya and Malawi, increased sales advisors and strong credit life sales in Zimbabwe, and positive foreign exchange impacts”, the insurer said.
The UK-based insurer said Old Mutual Wealth continued to benefit from its vertically integrated model and the acquisition of Quilter Cheviot. Gross sales were up 45 percent to R117.15bn, the highest the business has recorded in one quarter.
Old Mutual’s Asset Management division also performed well in a difficult third quarter in equity markets, the group said. The division’s funds under management ended the period at R2.88trn, down 5 percent on the year end due to challenging markets during Q3. Old Mutual’s majority-owned banking subsidiary Nedbank delivered a resilient performance for the nine months ending September 30, 2015. Net interest income increased 4 percent to R17.7bn, supported by annualised growth in average interest-earning banking assets of 10.4 percent.
In its outlook Old Mutual said it expected exchange rate movements to temper sterling reported growth and that conditions for emerging markets would remain challenging. — Fin24
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