Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Old Mutual Q3 voluntary updates. All attendees will be in listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity to ask questions imprompted. If you should need assistance during the call, please tickling operator by keying in star and then zero. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now hand you over to the Head of Investor Relations, Langa. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good afternoon to everyone who's joining us, and good morning to those who may be dialing in from the States. My name is Langa Manqele, as introduced. I Head of Investor Relations. On the call with me is Jurie, our CEO. He will be leading the call, and Jurie will be assisted during the Q&A and commentary session by Casper, our CFO, as well as Ranen Thakurdin, who is presently our Chief Accounting Officer. I will now turn the call over to you, Jurie. Thank you.
Thanks, Langa. Good afternoon, everybody, or good morning as the case may be. Good to be with you. I think I'm sure you have in front of you the operating update that we put out on the 18th of November. Maybe just by intro from my side, I think we had our capital markets day towards the end of October, where we put out the important metrics that we're going to be measuring ourselves on and be reporting on going forward in our medium-term targets. We are not reporting on those metrics in this operating update, but as we made clear in the update that from next year onwards, from sort of Q1 numbers onwards, we will be reporting on those.
I think internally, since the Capital Markets Day, as we head towards the end of the year and early to new year, the focus has moved, I think, as we spoke around taking those targets and operationalizing them into the business planning process. We've managed to catch the planning cycle to be able to do that, as well as the scorecarding process. Very much moving from sort of strategy into execution. That is the focus internally as we head towards the end of the year. I think just a couple of comments on the operating update that we put out. I think you will have noticed that there's not major changes from the trends that we reported in half year. The life FES sales continuing, still about 1% up. Gross flow is flat.
A decline in net plan cash flow for, again, the reasons that we reported half year, particularly the low margin outflows and investments, the single big outflow that made an impact there. Gross premiums on the non-covered side are 5%, at least on the P&C side. Loans and bonds also 1% up. Impacted there, of course, there was a sale of an underperforming loan book in Old Mutual Finance that impacted on that. Those are the metrics that we've put out there. I think Langa, I'm happy to go to questions for the conversation.
Thank you very much, Jurie. Could it kindly open up the call? I do not see yet the queues on the Q&A. Please confirm on your side if you do. Otherwise, if you could just remind the participants on how to put in their questions through. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please key in star and then one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate there are lines in the question queue. You may key in star and then two to exit the question queue. Our first question comes from Baron Cornwall of JP Morgan. Please come ahead.
Good afternoon. Just two questions. Firstly, are you able to give some color on the evolution of your CSM since June 2025? Secondly, can you comment on Old Mutual Insure underwriting performance so far in H2 relative to the strong first-half performance we saw? Thanks.
Thank you. Over to you.
Hi. On the CSM, unfortunately, not able to give you more color on the evolution of the CSM since the half year. We'll obviously be able to give you full reconciliation at the year- end. On the underwriting margin, we haven't seen any material impacts. Still positive margin, but we obviously reported a very high number at the half- year. I would expect that to normalize more to within our updated range or at the top end of our updated range.
Thank you, Casper. Next question, please, Judith.
Thank you. The next question comes from Harry Burter of Bank of America Securities. Please come ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks very much for the update. Can you comment on the life APE sales that you're seeing in personal finance, excluding guaranteed annuity sales? You also noted strong growth in resale gross written premium in Old Mutual Insure, if I understood correctly. H1 was up 5%. It sounds like growth has increased. Can you comment on what's driving that increase? Thanks.
Was your comment specific to personal? I'll just deal with it. I guess if we do look at the personal finance sales, guaranteed annuities were down close to 40%. It is the majority of the reduction, overall reduction in 9% that you're seeing period on period. That is what's driving that. We are seeing we saw a slight uptick in the recurring premium sales. That is obviously that. The biggest move there is guaranteed annuities down 40%, pulling back the sales by about nine. In your second question.
Just regarding the gross written premium in retail segment within Old Mutual Insure, it sounded like it was up more than 5% at June.
I'll just check on that and come back to you on that. We can go to the next questions.
Yeah.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Bradley Moorcroft of Peregrine Capital. Please come ahead. Bradley, your line is open. You can ask a question. Unfortunately, it seems as if Bradley has technical issues, and he's welcome to rejoin the queue. Should he sort that out? Our next question comes from Francois du Toit of Anchor Stock Brokers. Please come ahead.
Hi guys. Can you hear me?
[crosstalk-Yes. Yes, we can.]
Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Can you maybe comment on your solvency level, maybe just directionality in the quarter, and maybe factoring in buybacks as well? I know you don't like telling us whether you're buying back or not and whether you like the price to buy back or not, but maybe if you can just give a sense of how much you executed in the last quarter on your buybacks. That's the first question. Obviously, the solvency level will be a function of that, I guess, as well. Your second question, your gross flows, I think, was quite a bit stronger at the half- year in terms of percentage growth. Maybe just a comment on the reasons for the slowdown. I think you've mentioned annuity sales, but it seems like there's a further slowdown there since the half- year.
Nonetheless, the net flows improved from the half- year. It is outflows, but it is not as big an outflows level as we had at the half- year. Maybe can you just comment on your persistency or client retention in the light of better net flows and whether you are seeing positive lapse experience variances or improved levels compared with the half year? Just a sense of what is behind improved net flows and weaker gross flows.
Okay. Let me go to solvency levels first. Francois, what we last time looked we had done just over 10% of the buyback. We are required to, on a regular basis, publish what we've done. That is in the market. If you just look out for those things, you'll see that. In the quarter, in terms of solvency ratios, I would expect most insurers to have seen a decline in their solvency ratios given the fact that the prescribed equity shock increased in that quarter. I think it increased by about 4% or 5%, which means your capital requirements for any equities that you're holding will have gone up. They are at an all-time high. I think they are 1% away from the top level of strength that they can be. I would have expected, and we've correspondingly seen a reduction in normalized reservation.
Francois, just to add to Casper's comments, the share buyback was fully allowed for as a reduction to own funds in our interim number. As we execute the buyback, it will not affect our solvency ratios.
Okay.
Okay. On the second on gross flows, the second point that you raised. The Old Mutual investments had a higher base in quarter three 2024. This year, we are comparing against that higher base. That has detracted from the current year growth. As you said earlier, we had much lower fee of inflows to the points earlier made. We also had muted inflows in wealth, whereas wealth was a really strong performance last year. We have seen muted inflows in wealth. Hopefully, that helps. Overall, life insurance savings were down 1% from a gross flow perspective. That is the main reason. With Old Mutual investments down 18% from the prior year.
Maybe just to confirm Harry's earlier question, the 5% gross written premium growth, all of those, ensure the retail growth rate was quite similar to the total.
Thank you. Judith, may we please take the next question?
Thank you. Next question comes from Marius Stroydom of Austin Lawrence Gidon. Please hold here.
Good afternoon. My question is about OM Bank at the open day or the capital markets that you mentioned. You had 145,000 clients, and you were adding 5,000 a day. Could you please give us some indication of whether you've seen that kind of daily addition maintained since the capital markets day, or whether it's slowed markedly, or any other information you can provide us around your traction?
Marius, I think on the weekend, I think parents seem to know that we were at about 200,000. That run rate is going at about 3,000 accounts a day.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question, please.
Our next question comes from Bradley Moorcroft of Peregrine Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Can you hear me now?
Yes, there.
Can hear you, Bradley.
Sorry about the issue earlier. Also a question on Old Mutual Insure top line. I noticed that the growth has slowed from 9% at interims to 7%. I mean, any further color you can give there in terms of the slowdown, persistency challenges, increased competition would be very helpful.
Over to you, Casper.
Yeah. I know it's trying to get a proper answer there.
Okay.
Loud in my head, sorry.
Bradley will come back to you with that detail. Judith, may I check? Are there still any questions? I do not see anyone who's on the queue at the moment.
No, sir. At this point, there are no further questions in the question queue.
Okay. Thank you very much. I will hand back over to you, Jurie, just to—I think there's one question that I see. Judith, could you please check? I think it's Faisal. Yeah.
Correct, yes. Faisal Mekani of HSBC. Please come ahead.
Hi there. I just had a question, probably not related to Q3, but are you planning to take any restructuring charges in relation to your cost program? Will any of that be allocated to full year 2025? Thank you.
Can I just understand, correctly? Did you ask whether we are going to be adding any further restructuring provisions? Is that the question?
Correct. Yeah.
To the extent that you have to meet quite a lot of conditions to have a restructuring provision. If you've met all the conditions that are required at year end for a restructure, i.e., by these five people you've made the announcements, then it can be accrued for the year end. If you're not in that position, you have to incur the cost when you actually do that restructure. There will be additional costs in the second half relating to headcount reduction, but those have mostly been dealt with. I'm not expecting a large provision outstanding at 31%, i.e., a restructuring provision for future costs. We'll see the ones, of course, coming through in the second half. I hope that helps.
No, that's helpful. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Casper. Judith, could you please just do a final round and check if we have any questions left and just take those?
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, just a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you're welcome to key in star, and then one. We have a follow-up question from Harry Burter of Bank of America Securities. Please come ahead.
Thanks very much. Just a follow-up around the loan growth issue. I think you've noted the sale that had an impact on growth. What is your outlook for growth? How quickly do you see loan growth in Old Mutual Finance improving?
Thank you. Over to you, Casper.
Yes. Harry, as we mentioned earlier, part of the reason that the loan balances are flat is we were exiting specific pieces of the book. We are expecting to see better growth rates coming out of our loan book as we still very responsibly improve our lending. We are maintaining tight credit criteria. We do expect that book to grow going forward.
Thank you, Ranen. Operator, could you kindly check if we have any outstanding questions?
Yes, sir. Our next question comes from Jarred Houston of All Weather. Please come ahead.
Afternoon, everyone. Just checking you can hear me.
Loud and clear.
Perfect. Thanks, guys, for the call, and thanks for the update. Just a question on your investment results. You shared the investment return. Obviously, in the first half, saw a very strong number. Is it fair to assume, just given what's happened with markets, both locally and in the rest of Africa, as well as bond yields, it's fair to assume current run rate is a continuation of that strong trend?
Yes. I think it's fair to assume. Let's just recall that we do have collars around. We have a protected equity structure. Upside is limited, but we do try and roll those collars on a regular basis in tranches to manage the position over time. Yes, you should still see strong investment performance coming through in line with the markets in the second half.
Thank you, Casper.
Perfect. Can I ask?
Operator? Jared, it sounded like you were going to ask a follow-up.
Yes. Just the comment earlier about the progress on the buyback. I just want to clarify that Casper said only 10% of the buyback's been completed. Then just a question mark on we've obviously seen quite a big step up in market volume as a result of an index outflow. Is the group participating in a higher level of market volume, or is it just slowly ticking away over time?
Yeah. Can you make a comment?
Yeah. Obviously, we would participate in the high market volume if that's consistently happening. We have to work within the limits as an issuer. There are limits around. We can't move the market for that. We have to work within those limits. We are doing this buyback with a mandate with one or two of the large banks. They have specific parameters to work within. The 10% was a few weeks ago. That might have gone up in the last week or two.
We're just over ZAR 400 million at the moment.
Thank you, Casper and Ranen. Operator, I'm comfortable that we round up and maybe take one last question.
Thank you. Final question comes from Marius Stroydom of ALG. Please come ahead.
Okay. Thank you. Firstly, as South African asset management performance in the third quarter versus the first half, considering higher AUMs at 30 June and continuing strong market performance, should we expect a decent acceleration in your earnings run rate since the half year? The second question, considering the LAPS assumption changes that you made and the management actions that you've taken, have you seen some improvements in your LAPS experience at MFC?
Marius, just to remember, in the asset manager, a very small part of that base is equity type. Really, in OMEC, you're looking at a sort of a balanced mandate. The assets that you have, for example, like Omsk, we're seeing pressure on credit spreads. The origination targets are quite standard. They might be a bit more high on the flows. The alternatives, you're looking at much longer valuation cycles. I would expect the performance to increase in the third quarter, but there are quite a few moving parts.
Marius, also just remember that most of our FSM and team products on VFA, if we get values in the equity market, it goes to the CSM and does not drop through to earnings. You will see that logic coming through the CSM.
My question is really related to the asset management businesses, so those that don't form part of the CSM.
Okay.
Thank you, Casper. Thank you, Ranen.
Sorry, Langa, there was one more question on MFC persistency.
Sorry, Langa. Yeah. Langa, there was a question, Marius, on MFC persistency. I mean, we obviously are progressing with the management actions, but I think it's too early to call a material improvement yet.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Operator, I do not see any questions. I am comfortable to wrap up here and hand back to you, Jurie, just to wrap up the call for us. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks for being with us, everybody. I think there were one or two questions which we had with Langa to get back to the individuals on. For the rest, thanks for the conversation. I suspect our next conversation will be in the near future.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's event. Thank you for joining us. Anyone else, disconnect your line.