Okay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It really is a privilege for Nishlan and I to present the results for the six months ending 30 September 2022. The results are written by 8,500 of our colleagues across the world. We just have the pleasure to present them to you. I really am glad that over the last four years or so, since the pandemic, we have seen continued execution on the strategy that we outlined over that period of time. The environment has been particularly difficult, a level of volatility in markets, a recovery from COVID, which has been interrupted obviously by where we are today.
As we start our results, we obviously do recognize that we have a level of volatility that continues to characterize the environment ahead, and goes into the outlook, the macroeconomic outlook that we use in looking at our results. As Nouriel Roubini says, "In the history of modern capitalism, crisis are the norm and not the exception." That is the mindset that we take as we move forward, and we look obviously to continue to execute with discipline, but also to take advantage of opportunities that do come out of these environments that are disrupted. Just looking at the key takeouts of the results. As I said, over the last 4 years or so, or 4 reporting periods, we have seen COVID, and now we are in a macroeconomic environment that is highly disrupted.
Over those four years, we now see that our earnings per share, adjusted earnings per share are up 47%. That, we believe, is a fantastic achievement for the business over a disrupted period of time. We see also that the quality of our results continues to improve as we see recurring income increasing as our client franchises continue to generate results that are pleasing as we support our clients the way we do. We also see a strong generation of capital. As you see on the graph that our net asset value has continued to increase, and that generation of capital allows us, first and foremost, to continue to invest in growth. Importantly, in this period, to also return a significant amount of capital to our shareholders.
The ability to support growth and to return capital to our shareholders are the twin tracks that we are running on. As I said, we've made significant progress, and we are now at a point where we are returning to our shareholders. We are achieving returns to our shareholders that are within the targets that we said. Also, our cost to income ratio is where we said we would like to be by 2024 financial year end. Pleasing results indeed.
If we have a snap look at the results, a 25.1% increase in adjusted earnings per share, a 24% increase in adjusted operating profit, driven largely by significant revenue growth of 19% that is supported by the diversified client franchises that we have, but also the focused approach that we have towards client service and client support, particularly in an environment that is uncertain and that has a lot of risk attached to it. Our cost to income ratio came in at 60.5%, which is much lower than our FY 2024 target of less than 63%. In this reporting period, our costs were up about 11.5%, and Nishlan will unpack that.
If you look at our costs relative to 2019, you will realize that costs have been up only about 3.9%. Those who follow Investec will know that there has been a step change in our costs in the U.K. bank. Hence, the cost discipline that we have exercised over the last four years or so continue to support us. As we go forward, we will continue to exercise that level of discipline. Our asset quality continues to be very good, and our exposures are supported by very good collateral. In this reporting period, our credit loss ratio came in at 15 basis points compared to the prior period of seven basis points. This is driven largely by the outlook in the macroeconomy, particularly in the U.K., where there is a significant level of deterioration.
In fact, I'm glad I'm not Jeremy Hunt, uh, who at about this same time has to deliver in the U.K., uh, the Autumn Statement because, uh, the fiscal numbers there are much more constrained. So that increase, uh, to fifteen basis points is still lower than our medium-term range of twenty-five to thirty-five basis points in terms of credit loss ratios. But going into this environment, we obviously expect that, uh, you will see, uh, some creeping towards our medium-term targets. Our return on equity, as I said, is at, uh, 13% inside of our medium-term targets, and we really are pleased that we've been able to execute, uh, as we have.
The net asset value at 507p , uh, seems to be, uh, fairly stable, but what it hides is the fact that in the prior period, we distributed 15% of Ninety One . So we see strong capital generation, as I've indicated. That allows us-Uh, to have a proposed dividend of GBP 13.5 p, uh, which equates to a payout ratio of 41% . And importantly for this set of results, the board has approved a share purchase program that totals ZAR 7 billion if we take into account the prior announcement that we have made. We have said to our shareholders that, uh, we will, uh, set to deal with the excess capital that we have on the South African balance sheet, and we are now at a point where we can do so.
If we move forward and look at our two core geographies, being South Africa and the U.K., we see a loan book growth in South Africa of 10.3%. Your books say 10.2%. The number is 10.3%. I see that my team has updated that number on our screen. Strong growth within an environment that is constrained because we need certain fiscal and economic structural reforms within the South African environment. An annualized rate of 10.3% is particularly pleasing for us. We've seen very strong demand, in particular, on the corporate client side of our business.
Clearly, in this environment where there is a lot of market volatility and economic uncertainty, we have seen funds under management down 3.7% to ZAR 20.1 billion within the South African wealth and investment business. Despite that, we still saw net inflows of ZAR 2.1 billion in discretionary funds under management, a number that we obviously do monitor quite carefully. Overall, if you look at the two businesses, our adjusted operating profit increased 21.1% to ZAR 230.6 million. We are pleased with that level of increase in profitability. It also underlines the fact that we have a business model that has diversified revenues.
This is a season where asset managers and wealth managers have a lot of headwinds, but also a season at the same time where our banking businesses have a level of support from the rising global interest rates. Our ROE for our South African business printed at 14.8%, and this is before we implement the share purchase program that we talked about, the ZAR 7 billion, the total ZAR 7 billion share purchase program. As we continue to implement the program, we would obviously hope to see a significant improvement in the return on equity of the South African business. Now turning to our U.K. business in Investec plc. Again, a very robust growth in the loan book of 12.8% annualized.
Driven, um, as in the case of South Africa, by good corporate client, uh, lending, but also, uh, by a good traction in our private clients business, uh, with a lot of, uh, growth in our mortgage book there. Remember, we serve very, uh, high net worth clients within that business, so a good, uh, level of growth in the loan book. As in the case of the South African business, funds under management are significantly down, in this case, by nine point four percent to thirty-eight point eight billion pounds. Even in that environment, we saw over four hundred and forty million pounds of net, uh, inflows and a TOB ratio of around two percent, uh, in this instance.
Again, the diversification or the diversity of our income streams comes through, and we saw adjusted operating profit up 28.8% to GBP 174.4 million. Of note is that the banking business in the U.K. increased profitability by 52.3%. The traction that we have gained within the U.K. market continues, and our niche segments that we serve, we will continue to serve even as we go into a much tougher environment. Again, our ROE in the U.K. business printed at 11.1%, above our minimum target. In that market, we generally focus on return on tangible equity, and that came in at 12.6%. Overall, a very pleasing set of results for both Investec Limited and Investec plc.
Just before I ask Nish to go into these numbers in greater detail, we always look at our business, not only as a business that serves shareholders, although shareholders are one of our most important stakeholders. We also want to make sure that we run our business in a sustainable manner. Specifically with respect to the chosen Sustainable Development Goals, one being around climate change and the second being around reduction of inequality, we have made significant progress. On the former, we have now a baseline in terms of our Scope 3 reporting in terms of climate change, and we have made much more significant progress also with respect to signing up to a number of international conventions and treaties where we will be reporting the progress we're making with respect to climate change.
On inequality, we have made significant progress as detailed on the slides. We also measure our progress with respect to a reduction in harm. In this case, we measure our exposure to coal as an indicator of our commitment to reduce harm. On the positive side, we also measure our progress with respect to positive investment making a positive contribution. We've seen significant progress with respect to our support for social infrastructure on the African continent. We also have made significant progress with respect to responsible investing on our wealth side. As you can see there has been some inflows into our Investec Global Sustainable Equity Fund. As we go forward, we will always measure our progress in terms of profitability for our shareholders. We will measure our support for our colleagues inside of Investec.
In this current period, given the crisis in terms of cost of living in the U.K., we were able to support our colleagues that earn up to GBP 50 ,000. In the prior period, we supported our colleagues within the South African environment, given the performance that we reported in the prior year. We will continue to look after our colleagues, and we will continue to look how to create an environment where our colleagues can be the best that they are capable of being. We look out for issues relating to diversity. We look out to a culture of entrepreneurialism as we continue to support our clients. On a per capita basis, we continue to spend higher than our competitors because we believe that living in society and not of it is a principal tenet of who we are as Investec.
Pleased with the result overall in terms of financial outcomes and non-financial outcomes. I'm going to ask Nishlan to go into the detail of the results in terms of financial accounting and all the complexity that we will be able to unpack as we go. Nish, over to you. You know how to operate this, right?
Green and red.
Green and red.
Well, colleagues and shareholders and, you know, to all the parties out there, good morning to all of you. Thanks for sharing this time with us. I think these are really pleasing results to deliver to you. You know, I'll start off by setting the context in terms of which we've operated in and then really get into the results. Really looking at the macro environment, I think both in South Africa and the U.K., we have seen a good recovery or somewhat recovery post-COVID.
The realities of the environment has shifted in with the geopolitical tension with the Ukraine, Russia conflict that continues to go on, and constraints around global commodities and supply chain constraints around the world, as well as localized political issues that continue to play out. While we're expecting there to be a sort of a positive economic growth in South Africa of around about 1.9% over the next couple of years, that still remains relatively constrained. From a U.K. perspective, I think it'll be quite brave to try and preempt some of the news that will break in the market today, and that might influence that. Really, I think these are times that we've got to be prepared for the level of uncertainty that exists.
From a financial markets perspective, we've seen volatility and weakness, particularly with the events that played out at the end of September within the political and economic and fiscal policy profile in the U.K. From a South African perspective, we continue to see some volatility in the exchange rate and somewhat weak set of exchange rates, particularly as we close the half year. Global interest rates obviously sharply decreased as we went into the COVID environment, and we've seen a stepped increase and of late, a much sharper level of increase in interest rates as the various regulators have really instituted policies to try and deal with this concept of inflation that continues to drag into the influential layers.
I think from a U.K. perspective, this slide really identifies some very key points, which is that, you know, with the sharp rise in interest rates, you can see that those interest rates weren't seen before, you know, were last seen before the financial crisis. These increases in interest rates are really real and really sharp within that economy. We've seen that recently inflation printed at about 11.1% in the last quarter, so there is still work to be done to curtail inflation. We do see the interest rates continuing to increase. At the same time, we're very conscious of the fact that there is economic weakness that has to be dealt with once inflation is dealt with.
To that extent, we will anticipate seeing interest rates moderate as we move forward in time. In a South African context, I think it's very important to note that these interest rates were pretty much seen just before us entering into the COVID period back in March 2020. The levels at which we are at now, these markets have actually operated at just prior to the COVID period. Now, having contextualized those results, I think what's very pleasing is when we stood here back in March, we spoke about the post-recovery from COVID. We spoke about the momentum of that recovery. What you see in today's results is really a continuation of that momentum, really building on the strength of the underlying business franchises.
You know, for example, looking at the base growth that we've seen in the U.K. Bank and the influence that that has had on our net interest margin, as well as the positioning of the balance sheets in both South Africa and the U.K. It's very pleasing to report and to present the sort of momentum that you see on this graph now to September 2022. Splitting it out a little bit from a South African perspective, overall contribution to the GBP 405 million of operating profit that we've generated, which is a 24% increase. In South Africa, we saw an increase of 21% or 20% in rand terms.
A really positive contribution across the businesses with the South African Bank reporting an increase of 16% in rand terms and generating an ROE in this period of 15.1%. The wealth business in South Africa, again, within the context of the environment, reporting a 7% increase in ZAR.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you could please remain online, we are reconnecting the main line.
Decrease in the contribution to these results, and that will continue to phase out. Really what we'll see going forward is the dividend yield, you know, from our remaining 10% investment in Ninety One that's held on the U.K. balance sheet. In South Africa, we saw a significant improvement in profitability from our other investments, particularly the IEP investment, which I'll give you some color on a little later. From a U.K. perspective, underlying growth and profitability of 29%, with the Specialist Bank up 52%, and we'll go through detail around that as we unpack it. The wealth business, as we've seen around, you know, in that particular market, profitability dropping by 8%, really driven by lower-end softer markets.
The group investments portfolio is just the Ninety One investment. That's a natural reduction that we anticipated. I think, as you know, Fani has highlighted, the ROE for the group at 13% in this period is pretty much pre most of the capital actions that we've noted. Now, if we look at some of the highlights from a divisional perspective, let's start off on the U.K. Fund for the wealth business in the U.K. decreased to GBP 38.8 billion from pretty much record levels of GBP 42.9 billion last year. That's in the context of net growth of about 2.1% annualized in terms of net inflows of GBP 443 million.
We've seen a natural consequence of these reductions leading to a reduction in operating profit of 7.9% to GBP 40.3 million. The wealth business in South Africa. Here we have seen the business continue to expand its global investment offering, providing access to a range of investment opportunities. What that really means is a continued diversification. I think around about 60%-65% of the underlying funds under management now manage on an international basis for the South African client base. Discretionary annuity inflows of ZAR 2.1 billion, well offset by outflows as clients manage their portfolios and some of the share schemes that we manage also saw vestings during the period, and thus a net outflow of about ZAR 6 odd billion on the non-discretionary portfolio.
Adjusted operating profit up 7.6% in this context. The Specialist Bank in the U.K., here again, adjusted operating profit up by 52.3% and landing at about GBP 128.6 million contribution to the overall group operating profit. That's really underpinned by continued strong acquisition of clients, both in the private client and the corporate business. We did see good fee generation, particularly in our private equity platforms, as well as our project and infrastructure platforms. To some degree, you also saw lighter revenues from our listed equities as some of the market activity slowed in this particular environment. The loan book grew by 12.8% on an annualized basis to GBP 15.3 billion. We continue to see good momentum through to September.
We'll anticipate some of that momentum to lighten up as interest rates take effect, particularly on the mortgage lending book. You know, we're still quite an active business that has got access to quite a large market, so client acquisition will counter some of that pressure coming from a market perspective. The South African Bank growing operating profit by 16.4% ahead of prior period and printing a number of just over ZAR 4 billion of contribution to underlying profitability. Here, we did see increase in corporate credit demand. To some extent, subdued growth on the mortgage book in this particular period, as well as other corporate property lending activity.
The loan book, however, was up around about 10.2% annualized in the current period to GBP 313.7 billion. I think quite pleasing as we've reflected on the return on equity in both geographies now within the set targeted ranges. I think it's very important to just note this particular slide that we looked through, which is really to show the diversity of our revenue streams to spread across the businesses. You know, years back, we did have the contribution from Ninety One, but the wealth businesses contribute around about 20% of the revenue and 13% of the profitability for the group. We have overall net annuity income of about 78% for the group.
Whilst the Specialist Bank contributes about 79% of the profitability, that's not all capital intensive. There are elements of advisory fees and so forth within that platform. Strategically, we'll always look to try and balance that particular area, particularly focused on continuing to enhance capital-light revenue streams. If we look at geographically, the U.K. generated 55% of the overall revenue for the group, and South Africa generated about 57% of the overall profitability for the group. Now, getting into the divisions, from a Wealth & Investment perspective, I think a very respectable set of results in this period, notwithstanding the choppiness of market and the fact that you have seen lower brokerage generated from the fact that we've seen lower trading activity from our clients.
Adjusted operating profit at ZAR 300.7 million, around about 2% up in relation to the South African business. The operating margin for the South African business at 31.4% in this period. We continue to see operating income and operating costs growth in these results. Net organic growth of about 2.2%, and we see that FUM was broadly flat at about ZAR 362.7 billion. You do see when you unpack the funds under management that we continue to see good growth in our underlying discretionary FUM, you know, increasing by ZAR 2.2 billion. As I've noted, we've seen some decrease in the non-discretionary portfolio as clients manage their specific portfolios.
From a Wealth and Investment U.K. perspective, here, we did see FUM decrease by 9.4%, and that's driven by markets. We continue to see net inflows of GBP 443 million. To some extent, you know, I think with growth of 2.1% in the market that we are facing, still a fairly good performance from the underlying business. Here, we've seen the operating margin decrease from 26%-23.6%, and that's largely as a function of lower revenue in the business in this particular period. Commission income was negatively impacted by market conditions, but we did also see an offset to the extent that there were net higher interest earned, given higher interest rates. Now turning to the banks.
The Specialist Bank in South Africa, as I've highlighted, 10.3% growth in core loans and advances. Albeit that when we unpack it, you'll see that's largely in our corporate lending activities, whereas we've seen subdued growth in our private client lending extension. We've seen good growth in our deposit base and a continued focus on growing the retail deposit base in South Africa that will benefit net interest margin over time. The level of income, you continue to see good diversified levels of income, but strong growth in net interest income in the period of around about 14.3%, supported by higher interest rates. We've seen good growth in our underlying fee income in the period, obviously subdued in certain areas because of activity levels.
Trading activity remained, you know, client trading activity and therefore client flow income positive in these set of results. Notwithstanding the fact that operating costs increased by 14.6% in line with income in the period, the cost income ratio remained at about 49.7%. I think it's important to note that this business has maintained a compounded annual growth rate of costs since September 2019 of about 5.4%. The increase in costs that we've seen in the current period is driven by a post-recovery of some of the costs that were muted during the COVID period, but it's also driven by increases in headcount as we focused on bolstering certain areas on very targeted growth initiatives within the business itself.
From a U.K. banking perspective, and this obviously represents our activity both in U.K. and within the European environment with some activity outside of those geographies as well, including our project and infrastructure capability in the U.S. and some of our Indian operations. The net core loans grew by 12.8%, with mortgage loans growing by just under 16% annualized in this period. As I've indicated, you know, higher interest rates, we do anticipate moderation within the mortgage lending book, offset by very much the continued drive to grow clients and to expand our base in that particular market. Deposits grew by 6.4% to GBP 18.9 billion.
Again, looking from a revenue perspective, here we saw net interest income growing by 40.8%, and that's not just the higher interest rates, but it's really driven by the momentum that we saw in terms of growth of the book over the last few years in that platform, and therefore, the business benefiting from the net higher book that we have developed. I think that non-interest revenue, you know, we did see higher fee income come in from certain areas. As I've indicated, there have also been negatives in terms of some of the areas, for example, advisory fees within the listed space decreasing in this period. Trading activity and client flow income remains quite solid.
As you would have noted, I've not quoted anything to do with the financial products losses that we had prior. Because notwithstanding the choppiness of this market, that book is now well hedged and significantly lower than the levels that we had previously. The cost to income ratio in this business improving from 72.8% - 64.1%. You would note that we targeted a cost-income ratio of less than 65%. With the strong growth in revenue, you've seen that cost-income ratio really come into targets. Again, you know, we know that we've seen significant increases in costs in this period. A lot of that is intentional, a lot of that is driven by market conditions and inflationary pressures that exist.
Again, if you look at over time, I think the compounded annual growth rate over time has been below 2% for this business, particularly with the actions taken back in March 2020 to really challenge and rightsize the cost base. Now, looking at group investments, here you would see that our overall portfolio and balance sheet is reduced to about GBP 656 million. We've distributed a large portion of Ninety One. That's the majority of the delta year-on-year. The remaining GBP 169 million carrying value is really represented by the 10% that we hold off the U.K. balance sheet. We have a holding of 24% in Investec Property Fund. I think you saw resilient results reported from that platform yesterday.
It continues, you know, to some extent there remains some discount to market, which we are sensitive to from a carrying value, but the underlying business is still a strong contributor and represents the group strongly. IEP, we've seen a strong improvement in its profitability contribution to ZAR 282 million. To some extent, you know, the carrying value of IEP at just under ZAR 6 billion, we've announced that we've now entered into an agreement. In fact, IEP and its major subsidiary, Bud, has announced that they will effectively facilitate an exit strategy for both Investec and other shareholders over a period of time, which we expect to take place over the next 24 months.
Together with that, we've announced that IEP has actually realized one of its significant assets within the chemical cluster that represents about 26% of our book value. To some extent, that level of execution, which is unpacked in the results, you will continue to see an overall realization of that asset. This area, we will continue to see a reduction in capital allocated to our group investments. With the growth in our franchise platforms, both in South Africa and the U.K., a continued increase in capital allocated to those businesses. Summarizing it, operating income, if we look at it by drivers, net interest income, significant contribution to these results of a 32% increase. Fee income, with positives and negatives playing around in different areas, increasing by 2% in the period.
Investment and trading income, really sharp increases from the prior period. Other operating income is really a function of the movement of fair value of some of the positions supporting our share scheme position. That's really offsetting costs. Operating income mix, again, remaining relatively healthy with annuity income at about 78.2% of the overall income base. The cost base, I think the most material line is personnel, and that's personnel both in the front and the back office. It's also personnel that includes our IT platforms and, you know, that services the businesses and services the depth of the organization.
We've seen strong increase in personnel costs in both South Africa and the U.K., both running above inflation in this period, and some of the pressures that have come through from an overall market perspective. The rest of the costs, again, reflecting the fact that we continue to invest in the business, and to some extent, levels of normalization that have come through. Funds under management, the key drivers. I'm not gonna dwell on these numbers. We've been through them in quite a lot of detail, and really summarizing the fact that we've seen core loans grow by 7.1%, and customer deposits grow by 2.1% on an annualized basis.
I think if you look at our ratio of customer deposits to core loans at 75.8%, that continues to remain quite healthy. Looking at our core loans in South Africa, and just unpacking the 10.3% annualized growth that we've seen, you'll see that that has been significantly led within the corporate and other lending areas spread across the various activities within that particular area. Lending collateralized by property and mortgages growing by 4% and 2% in this period, relatively lower levels of growth than we would normally see in those areas. U.K., you know, last year we saw significant growth in the mortgage book, and that's now quite relevant at just under, well, GBP 4.5 billion.
Again, here we've seen growth across the portfolio, including mortgages and corporate and other lending. You know, I think we're quite pleased with the momentum that we've continued to see in the business. Now turning to expected credit loss. I think at 15 basis points, you'll see that is, you know, if you look at history, still below where we would have normally operated at. I think we're quite clear in terms of our guidance to the markets, which is in South Africa we have a sort of through the cycle credit loss ratio guidance of 20 basis points-30 basis points, and you'll see that South Africa is pretty much at 0 at this point in time.
From a U.K. perspective, credit loss ratio guidance of 30 basis points-40 basis points, and we're about 32 basis points. Although the credit loss number income statement charge is very similar to what we had back in 2019, the books are much larger, so we've seen a lower overall credit loss ratio as a ratio. Now, if we unpack that by geography, you know, from a South African perspective, we did release some of our model impairments that we raised during the COVID period. We remain very vigilant around the economic outlook in South Africa, so we retained provisions on the balance sheet with that outlook.
We've released some of our model overlays. A really small component, ZAR 30 million of ZAR 210 million, was released. We re-retained about ZAR 190 million of the provisions, particularly around areas where we believe that there might be emerging risk arising. The overall loss ratio in this period at, you know, pretty flattish. There is experience loss within that number, but there are also recoveries offsetting it and some of the release of impairments. From a U.K. perspective, I think here, again, we did see a deterioration in the economic environment, a rising uncertainty in that market. As that continues to unfold, we will remain defensive from a balance sheet perspective.
In this period, around about half of the provisions that have been raised have really been raised around increasing model impairments, deterioration in economic results. We've seen one or two other specific impairments incurred in the current period, none of which points to any specific trend to highlight. Our balance sheet provisions and the level of coverage against the various stages. Just stage one really represents the performing book, stage two, where we have some concern, and stage three is the default book. Our coverage ratio, you know, across all of those remains relatively strong given the level of collateral that exists on the book. Return on equity. We're really getting to the home stretch.
Return on equity and return on tangible equity printing at 13% and 13.9%. Again, quite strong levels within our businesses. Quite an equal split of the level of capital allocated against the two businesses. There's a higher return on tangible equity as we have a higher goodwill element allocated to our wealth business in the U.K. and a 12.6% ROTE for the PLC business. I think over this period, capital has remained robust. You know, the CET1 ratio at PLC level at 11.1%, again, is measured on a standardized basis. The CET1 ratio in South Africa at 14.1% is measured on a partial AIRB basis. We believe we are on the final stages.
We've completed a parallel run process with the regulator, and we anticipate over the next while to be able to complete that migration to AIRB. On the equivalent basis, that ratio is around about 16% relative to the rest of the South African market. We've continued to maintain strong levels of cash and near cash. To some extent, we'll continue to manage that down as the environment improves and book grows. As the Group's indicated, you know, we remain committed to our medium-term targets. You can see where we are. I think obviously over time, you know, cost of equity and cost of capital will probably reprice in a higher interest rate environment. We'll continue to look at these targets as we move forward in time.
I think there's a lot of uncertainty as we sit in the system right now. The dividend payout ratio at 41%, again, we will, you know, operate at that high end of our payout ratio. I think as we look forward from a financial outlook perspective, you know, I think there's no denying that we are in an environment that has been very similar to what we've seen over the last while, where we are influenced by the level of uncertainty in the markets. We are very conscious of particular weaknesses that exist. We're conscious of the environment that we are operating in the U.K.
Taking all of this into account, I think we remain fairly positively poised to both support our clients and to engage in very specific growth initiatives across the platforms that we operate in. I think there's a level of discipline in the way we manage the business, and that discipline will continue to apply, and we continue to expect to see a high level of asset quality, even though we are guiding towards a higher level of expected impairments as we look forward. The level of capital that we deploying in terms of a buyback program, and that's really underpinned by the fact that we continue to see value in the stock itself.
You know, to extent that is largely driven by capital generation, we'll continue to see a level of capital generation which will support this interaction with shareholders. Really expecting our cost to income ratio to remain in that targeted range. Now, I'm gonna hand over to Fani to wrap it up for us.
Thank you, Nish. That was a lot of unpacking. I hope what you saw is a business that is simpler to understand, no surprises in what we presented. A set of outcomes that we had talked about four years ago. As one of our shareholders says, "The story is a bit easy to understand, somehow a bit boring, but in these types of times, boring is good." Thank you, Nishlan. That is a lot of unpacking, as it were. Over the last few years, the idea was to simplify the business, and we have executed largely on that promise of simplifying the business.
As you know, we distributed 70% of Ninety One, equivalent to about ZAR 32 billion in South African terms, larger than a Pick n Pay, by the way, if you think about the return of capital to our shareholders. We have announced in these results that we will be returning a total of ZAR 7 billion to our shareholders over the next 18 months or so. The process of simplification has borne fruit, and we continue, as I say, to return capital to our shareholders.
The next stage of what we were doing over the last four years is really focus, particularly sharply on a set of clients that we choose to serve and make sure that we serve those clients exceptionally, and we are very competitive in terms of both the service and the offering that we provided. As you know, we exited a number of businesses and geographies, and we are competitive where we choose to play. As we go forward, I know the environment is very difficult, but we have a number of identified opportunities for growth that we will be executing on. Our story, as simple as it is also quite interesting, by the way.
Just looking at the last four years or so, and I don't want to go through what Nishlan went through. The detail was quite a lot. You can see that the growth in profitability has been particularly impressive. As I said, 47% between September 2019 and now in terms of adjusted earnings per share. You can also see that there has been an impressive generation of capital, which allows us to return capital back to our shareholders. You also can see that we have been reducing the weighted number of outstanding shares. This program that we have announced will obviously accelerate that reduction in a way. Note, we talked about costs, and that over the last four reporting periods, our costs in general are up only 3.9%.
That discipline around costs will continue as we go forward, and it is no surprise that our ROE and our cost-to-income ratios are now within the targets that we had set for ourselves. A four-year period of good delivery. As Nishlan says, the discipline in execution has to continue. If we look slightly ahead, starting on the right-hand side of that pictorial, we talk about continued optimization of returns as a mantra. That continuous optimization of returns is underpinned by three specific considerations. The one is allocation of capital. We will put our capital to use only in those areas where we think we can make a competitive return by serving clients in an exceptional and unique way. Where we cannot compete, we will exit and redeploy the capital and our people elsewhere. Discipline around allocation of capital continues.
The second area is discipline around costs and making sure that we are as efficient as we can be. As you saw, our cost income ratio is now at 60.5%. The third area which we don't talk as much about is that we have discipline around risk. If you look at the last four years or so, risk events have been few, and they have been proportionate to the size of our balance sheet and the size of our business. Continued risk discipline. Those three propositions I've mentioned will underpin a continued optimization of returns.
If I go to the left of this pictorial, as we move forward, we are going to deepen the level of service that we give to our clients, and we are now building ecosystems between bank and wealth in the south and in the north, and also between north and south as we serve our clients much more holistically. We are seeing some fantastic outcomes out of this. As an example, our high net worth private clients proposition is extremely competitive as we go forward. We are seeking opportunities, for instance, in building out a global wealth proposition on the back of the successes that we have made. We are also deepening our experience in terms of how we serve the mid-market corporate client base in South Africa and in the U.K.
There are vectors of growth where if we serve our clients by bringing the best of Investec, irrespective of bank or wealth, north or south, we can deliver a much enriched experience, much better outcomes. In fact, as we do so, we can also operate much more efficiently. Operating platforms that are across our businesses and optimized would be the consequence of our focus on connected client ecosystems across business and geographies. There are a number of growth opportunities and initiatives we have identified, and we're going to accelerate our ability to scale and bring these to market. As an example, we have for some time been offering some investment products to the lower end of our private clients market. There's a lot more focus to scale that opportunity for growth.
We have, as an example, Investec Life that we've had for the last few years. We are now accelerating our execution around a number of these. As I said, we are also concentrating on the mid-market. We have, as an example, in South Africa, what we call Investec for Business, and the level of interaction with our clients is increasing, and as a consequence, also the profitability that we think we can get out of it. Optimizing returns as we go forward, building connected ecosystems that offer propositions that are much more relevant, and delivering those in an excellent manner, but at a cost that makes sense for our business. Internally, we will improve the cultural identity and DNA of Investec. Entrepreneurial, high client service, high levels of ownership, and really being exceptional in how we deliver in supporting our clients.
We will continue digitization, and our spending as we go forward will be directed towards the future as opposed to simply business as usual. More than we ever have done at Investec, we are now looking to use data to empower decision-making. We will always be entrepreneurial, but we will support a lot more of what we do through the strategic use of data. The future as we see it, despite a challenging macro environment, is really exciting for the people of Investec, and we look forward to engaging with that challenge. As we close, in the areas we choose to operate, we have a very rich heritage. Private banking, wealth and investment management, corporate banking, investment banking, and so on and so forth. We have deep specializations, and we are bringing these specializations together through connected ecosystems.
As I said earlier on, we will deliver the best returns we can for our shareholders, but we will also be a corporate citizen where we play that is responsible. We will support our colleagues, we will support the communities in which we play and in which we operate, and we will also make sure we do so responsibly with respect to leaving a planet for the next generations that is not destroyed. Our client franchises have scale, they have relevance in our chosen market, and they are resilient. As we go into this new environment of uncertainty, resilience of client bases is really particularly important. We went into COVID and went out fairly quickly because our clients are very resilient.
Going forward into this market, we do believe that the resilience of our clients will stand us in good stead. We will continue to deal with the strong level of capital generation. It is a particular feature of our business, and we will use that capital to support growth, but also to return the excess to our shareholders. As Nishlan said, we have a set of mid-term targets that we are firmly committed to. We are excited about the challenges lies ahead. On that note, I'm going to open the stage for questions. Thank you, Nishlan, for going through the big detail. Now we can go into questions. We shall start in London, I think. Ruth, are you there?
Fani, good morning.
Good morning.
Any questions from the room?
Hi, Fani. Hi, Nishlan.
Hi.
Three questions for me. Firstly, on credit quality, can you talk a little bit more as to what you're seeing in the U.K. and South Africa and sort of talk about why you're kind of keeping that 25 basis point-35 basis point guidance? Sort of secondly, on the buyback, could you talk about why you've selected the size of buyback you did this time and how much more excess capital there might be in the business to release going forwards? Sort of thirdly, can I just ask if any change to guidance on sensitivity of net interest income to base rates? Thanks.
Sorry, what was the last question? I didn't get that.
Sorry, just whether there's any change in guidance?
Okay.
On net interest income sensitivity to base rates.
Okay, great. Let me take the question on buybacks, and then I'll ask Nishlan to deal with sensitivity. On buybacks, we've indicated that we have a level of excess capital in South Africa. If you look at where we are marking ourselves around 16% on an AIRB perspective once we have approval, and if you look in this market, competitors would be between 12% and 13% or so. If you mark your steady state level of capital at about between 12% and 13%, you very quickly can quantify the level of excess capital that we have indicated we would be returning to our shareholders. That's how we think about it.
Also there is a strong level of capital generation as we continue forward. I mean, we've indicated, as an example, GBP 32.9p of adjusted operating earnings. We've indicated a dividend declaration of 13.5%. We do generate capital, and obviously some of that capital we put into growth. Nish?
Yeah. I think if I deal with the question around credit impairments, you know, again, getting back to the guidance, I think what's very important to note is that we did have higher peaks, particularly off the global financial crisis. We saw a higher peak during COVID. We therefore don't anticipate to see the same sort of environment as we look forward. What's very important for us is that we reshape the books over a long period of time in both South Africa and the U.K. As Fani has spoken about this concept of effectively managing risk to a tolerable level, that has been embedded into the books. We are a business that focuses on a high level of collateralized lending.
We don't have any significant uncollateralized positions within our private client space, so there isn't a significant credit card book. We continue to see high levels of prepayment in our mortgage books, and that really informs our view. I think if you look at the interest rate outlook, the guidance that we've provided is GBP 10 million-GBP 15 million for every 25 basis point increase in the U.K. We probably guide to the higher level initially. From a South African perspective, between ZAR 80 million and ZAR 100 million for every 25 basis points. That guidance is relatively consistent with what was provided before.
Ruth, any more questions? Ruth, you're on mute at the moment.
No further questions from London.
Thank you, London. I will now go to Chorus Call, I think.
Thank you.
Sorry. Let's start over here. Sorry.
It's okay.
Any questions from the room here in Johannesburg? Hope you like the dividend.
Thank you. Mr. Titi, it states on page 37.
Uh-huh.
Financial outlook.
Yeah.
That it is expected that the CLR will normalize in the range of 25 basis points-35 basis points. Now, I'm having difficulty with the use of the word normalize.
Uh-huh.
Because I now look at page 30, which incidentally is not numbered in the booklet, but it's page 30, where the credit loss ratio for the last three years is given, and I cannot see anything approaching 25 basis points-35 basis points as normal.
Look, we managed through cycles. We talk of through the cycle. Sorry, Nish, you wanted to take that.
No, I actually take the challenge on the use of the word normal, because that probably doesn't exist anymore. I think we have to be conscious of the environment we're in. I go back to the point, which is having analyzed our books, having understood the position, and having understood the level of risk in our books, this is the best guidance we can provide. If there are consequences that we can't foresee that drives up impairments because of some sudden event in the market, you will see the levels of impairments that you saw through the COVID period, and that's some of the history that you are looking at on that particular page. I think when you look through time, this is the best guidance that we can give to the market.
If I might take that question further, please. The current year, the credit loss ratio for the first half was 7 basis points. In the second half, it was 1. Now, there's nothing wrong with being conservative about the future. To go from 1, which you experienced actually in the second half of 2022, to go as much as high as 25 seems that you're being overly conservative.
Well, that's an interpretation and, you know, again, I'll take the interpretation, but we're gonna have to move forward in time to fully answer that question. I think the point in South Africa is there's two factors. If I split it by geography, and remember the 25-35 is a combined guidance for the two geographies. South Africa was pretty much a zero loss. If you have three components, there's actually experience loss in that book. There's a release of some of the historical model impairments that we've raised, and there's also recoveries that are still higher than the normal rate that we experience. We are a business of risk, and we'll anticipate to see impairments come through, particularly as you see sharper and higher interest rates apply.
From a U.K. perspective, we reported a 32 basis point credit loss, and that's pretty much in the range of the guidance of 30 basis points-40 basis points. You know, there, we've got a different book, a different mix. For example, we've got a higher level of asset finance activity in the U.K., and therefore we will guide to a higher credit loss ratio. What it would be, I think it'll take a brave person to point to that over the next while, because there's a lot to unpack with regards to the uncertainty that sits in front of us.
Thank you. Any further question in there, sir? I thought you were gonna talk about the dividend really, but I'm disappointed.
Morning, Fani. Thank you for the presentation. Just 2 questions from me.
Would you mind just speaking up a little bit? We want the mics to pick you up on the other side as well.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah, we can hear you now.
There we go. Two questions from my side. I'm sure you'll say, "No good deed goes unpunished," but now that your ROE is within the target range, how do you think about that? Where should we think about it over the medium term, close to the bottom or the top end, given that capital allocation decisions and given that you still have your growth initiatives? Where would you like us to think about that over the medium term? I think that's the first question.
Yeah.
The second question is on your structured products book that hasn't had significant negative impacts this year. Is it that you hedge the book and therefore on this particular book you don't expect anything further, but you still carry on doing that kind of business? Has that kind of business been significantly scaled down from where you were in 2019?
Okay. Let me start. With respect to returns, we had indicated that through the cycle return range of 12%-16% for the group. We have now gone into that range. Obviously from a management perspective, you will hope that through the cycle you will be middle or upper end of that range on a through the cycle basis. Remember that we said we want to generate returns that are in excess of our cost of equity. That is the overriding principle. As this environment develops, there will be levels of revision of what the cost of equity will be.
Until that time that we revise our thinking around that, we continue to strive for the 12%-16%, and hopefully we can go to the middle of that range. When you look at the cycle, we would hope that we can be middle to upper end of that cycle. Given movement in cost of equity as we go forward, we will look at that. That's on the first question. On the structured deposit book, remember that we were very specific that we were looking at capital at risk, the capital at risk book. At the moment, the size of the remaining book is less than 20% of its original size.
We continue to run that down, and it has been totally insignificant with respect to our results this time around as a consequence of two specific things, three. First, the book size is much lower. Second, we had taken certain hedging decisions around that. Third, the management of ongoing risk has been very good. We do not expect that to be a big factor as we go forward. Any further question? Okay, I think we'll go to the Chorus Call. Nishlan Samujh, you wanna get closer here.
Why?
We have Investec together.
Thank you, sir. Just a reminder for the participants on the phone lines. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star and then 1. The first question comes from Harry Botha from Anchor Stockbrokers. Please proceed with your question, Harry. Harry, you may proceed with your question. If your line is muted, please unmute your phone so that we can hear your question. Unfortunately, we can't hear anything from Harry's line. The next question comes from James Starke from RMB Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question, James.
Hi, good morning, Fani and Nishlan. Thanks for the opportunity. A two-part question from my side regarding the private bank in South Africa. I mean, it's really on competitive intensity and how you're finding the landscape at the moment. I mean, which aspects of the business are you seeing that intensity manifested? I mean, if you could touch on things like asset pricing, liability pricing, and even risk appetite. Secondly, you recently refreshed your rewards program. If you can give some color on how your clients are responding to these changes and how engagement levels and costs are trending relative to your expectations from these changes. Thank you.
Hear the second question.
Yeah. The rewards program.
The rewards program. Okay, you go.
Okay.
By the way, I saw Cumesh, the Head of our Private Bank, walk much earlier.
Exactly. I was looking for Cumesh.
In order to be around to hear this question.
You know, I think we've got a business that's obviously operating in South Africa for a long period of time. I think competition in South Africa is strong. I think that often the boundaries in terms of the competitive landscape will continue to change. I think the consistency from an Investec perspective is the depth of service that we offer the client. The fact that we're a very high-touch business, really supported by high-tech. We'll continue to keep those elements moving in deep parallel status and continue to, you know, expand our business. Now, what we've particularly done, I think, which has laid the challenge to the business to actually double its client base over the next three, four, five years.
That challenge is on the basis is that we've been highly conservative in the manner in which we've acquired clients. We believe that the world out there has moved on. We believe that we don't have to really shift the risk curve too much, and that we can further penetrate into this market, really underpinned by what Investec represents in the market. When it comes to our rewards program, our approach is simplicity. There's no ifs and buts and when and how and timing and the rest of it. It's really about if you interact with the business, and we've expanded the platforms around where we measure that interaction, and we'll continue to expand around that.
At the end of the day, as a client, you know what you're receiving, and you have optionality in terms of how to deploy that reward. At the crux of the program was continuous simplification and enhancement to the underlying program. Now, I think you used the keyword, which is recently introduced, so it's very hard to answer your second component with a short period of time that those changes are in play.
Thanks, Nishlan. Yeah, I like your answer on this reward. Simple to understand and simple to cash out and benefit from because there are rewards programs that are around that are very complex and they don't offer the same value. In fact, I said to A.B., our Global Head of Marketing, we've gotta be able to communicate our proposition in simpler terms, so that people can understand the value that resides in our propositions. Good answer, Nish. Another question from Chorus Call.
At this time, there are no further questions on the phone line, sir.
Thank you. The last area to go to will be the ones that have been emailed. Tesh.
Fani, before we go there, I think one other question is just the distinction of the offering in the South African market from a private client perspective.
Yeah.
If you look at the fact that this bank has the ability to offer you an international service in a manner that is fully integrated, and the integration between managing your need for capital and managing the capital that you've created through our wealth platforms as well, and that level of integration that sits around the client. Apologies.
Yeah. One of the questions that didn't come up would've been on grey listing. The fact that we have an integrated offering of both South Africa and U.K. private banking and wealth means that if, God forbid, we do get grey-listed, clients here in South Africa will be negatively impacted. Given the fact that we are an integrated and a lot more joined-up proposition, we will be able to help our clients much easier than anyone else would be able to. Purely because we know the clients here. We have been doing a lot of work to make sure that the enhanced due diligence that would be required if we're grey-listed for clients to be served elsewhere, that process would be simplified.
That's why when you look at our private banking and our wealth proposition, firstly, we are at the top end, the best there is. We are moving to address at the lower end of it much more aggressively as we spoke. For my investment, Investec Life, a proposition around mortgages. We're gonna be extremely competitive, and we offer this international linkage that becomes even more important if you have grey listing. Sorry, Nishlan. Now you've got me to talk about something else.
Okay. Let's take the next question.
Let's go to questions.
Sorry, we've got quite a few questions. I know that it's like 12-13 at the moment, and I know you have some meetings.
Okay, I'll leave them to Nishlan then. I can go a bit long.
How many questions would you like to take?
I think there will be themes. Are you able to give us one or two themes?
Let's go.
We can take the questions based on themes.
Okay. All right. We're gonna go to Donatus Mbanda. What can you say would be the optimum level of interest rates for the net interest income, meaning the highest rate beyond which the loan growth may start to reverse backwards, both S.A. and the U.K.?
Again, it's not necessarily an easy question to answer. I think what we can say is the following. Given the area of the market that we operate in, we anticipate that our clients remain relatively resilient to higher interest rates. Again, I'll reiterate that from a South African context perspective, those higher interest rates weren't too far back. We've seen that South Africa is probably reaching a point of normalized. Well, I wouldn't use the word normalized, but rates that is used to operating in some of that benefit of lower rates through the COVID environment is now pretty much out the system.
We're still about 25 basis points below where we were back in March 2020, and maybe that increases by a % or 2% over time. I would still see it consolidating given the weakness in the general market. From a U.K. perspective, we've seen rates increase to around about 3 odd % over this period. There's probably more momentum. We see that growing to around about 4.75% or 5%. We'll listen to the news over the next few days to understand if that outlook changes. Again, we see that, you know, the main impact right now is inflation, and that's the objective. Immediately after that is to get back onto the economic outlook and forward.
We think our clients will remain resilient in those sort of rate ranges in both South Africa and the U.K. At the same time, we're very cautious. That's the reason for us providing a higher impairment outlook.
We're gonna do one more question. That's from Miles Green. Excellent improvement in the cost-to-income ratio from 64% - 60%. What ratio is Investec targeting in the short to medium term? Why is the current cost-to-income ratio materially higher in the plc than Limited?
Yeah. To answer that question, we've indicated that medium-term target with respect to cost to income for the Group is below 63%. We're currently 60.5%, and we will continue to work, as I've said, to improve our cost discipline. With respect to the two geographies, firstly, the U.K. geography is a higher cost geography. Second, the composition between bank and wealth is different. We have a much larger composition, relatively speaking, with respect to the U.K. from wealth. As I said, that is a higher cost jurisdiction. Generally, your cost to income ratio will be dependent on mix and on geography in terms of the level of cost.
We would expect, as you go forward, that you have a differential in terms of cost to income ratios. Internally, we obviously do manage our expectations around cost to income ratios, per business, per geography. For purposes of reporting to the market, we now really just focus on three, the Group one, the plc and the Limited, because we think that's easier from a market perspective. I think that takes us to the end of the day. Something burning, okay.
One more question from.
Sorry, Nishlan.
Chris Stewart, Ninety One. It appears your announced buyback is based on existing capital surplus post advanced AIRB. Given improved organic capital generation to support risk-weighted assets growth, what are your plans for the capital generated by the disposal of the IEP assets?
I knew that's coming, Nishlan, so that's the last question. It came in rather late. You go.
I thought you were taking it.
Oh.
You know, I think at the end of the day, we've announced a number. That number takes into consideration what we're comfortable with given our outlook over the next short while. We've indicated the fact that the business remains highly capital generated, and any considerations as we move forward in time, we will consider. I think it's important to separate the cash value of a release of an asset to its capital requirement. I wouldn't overemphasize the capital released on the realization of some of those investments.
Yeah. Just in closing then, I would like to thank my colleagues for delivering this excellent set of results. It's been a long journey over the last four years or so. I also would like to just thank our shareholders. When we came with this strategy for simplifying the business, focusing and growing it, there was a level of risk around it, and there was a level of lack of conviction. A number of our large shareholders supported us. As we go forward, the environment is quite choppy. As I said, we are comforted by the fact that we have a resilient client base, well-capitalized, both in terms of, well, a strong balance sheet in terms of capital and liquidity.
We have a culture that allows us to continue to support clients during this period. Thank you very much for your attendance. We will see you in another six months or so. Thank you.