MMI'S international business up
MMI'S international business up

MMI'S international business up

MMI Holdings, a parent company to insurer Metropolitan and the under-fire administer of government's medical aid scheme, PSEMAS has reported good fortunes for its nine-month financial results.
Ogone Tlhage
MMI Holdings recently reported a 3% growth on a year-on-year basis for its internationally focused business, with the Namibian operation adding 9% to the growth the insurer has recorded.

The group recently updated the market via a Namibia Stock Exchange News Service announcement.

Said MMI of its operational performance over a nine-month period: “Difficult economic conditions have continued to weigh on MMI Holdings' financial performance in the nine month to 31 March 2017.”

International's new business was up 3% year-on-year, the insurer reported.

“Recurring premium new business is up 11%, single premium new business is down 17%. Value of new business is up 30% to R61 million for the nine months. Namibia has made the strongest contribution year-to-date with volumes up 9% and new business value up 26%. Lesotho and Botswana also made solid contributions with only Swaziland showing decline in sales.

Profitability in the Namibian business returned to normal levels the group said.

“Earnings at International are lower than in the previous year. Life insurance earnings are below those achieved in Financial Year 2016 due to the weak start to the current year in Namibia. Profitability in the Namibia life business has recovered to more normal levels since the weak first quarter 2017 results,” it said.

The group also said that bit would be looking to improve operating efficiencies.

Commenting on its other Africa-focused business operations, it said: “Losses for our short-term insurance operations in Africa have continued tracking the run-rate observed at mid-year. Our health insurance operations continue to show improved profitability following premium rate increases on underperforming schemes,” adding, “We are making steady progress with rationalisation of our Africa portfolio and this will also unlock scope to reduce the central expenses incurred to support the in-country activities.

Looking ahead, it expected the South African operating environment to improve.

“Operating environment remains difficult in South Africa and we do not believe that the tough environment will improve meaningfully in the near term. This means that we need to continue applying strong discipline in our capital allocation decisions and to find increasingly efficient ways of doing business in the absence of meaningful revenue growth in core operations,” MMI said.

“At this stage we expect full year results to broadly reflect the trends visible in the first nine months of the current financial year,” it said in anticipation of its full-year results.

MMI Holdings Namibia was amalgamated in 2015 following the acquisition of Swabou from FNB Namibia. In its amalgamated form, MMI Holdings now comprise Metropolitan, Momentum Namibia,

OGONE TLHAGE

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Namibian Sun 2026-06-22

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