Libertine Holdings: Full-year earnings jump 11%

Liberty Holdings posted an 11 percent jump in full-year earnings yesterday on the back of stronger insurance and asset management business. The insurer, which is majority owned by Standard Bank, said black economic empowerment-normalised headline earnings a share came in at R14.396 for the year to December last year, from a restated R13.001 the previous year. This is Liberty’s main performance measure. Liberty said new insurance revenues had risen nearly 15 percent to R6.9 billion and cash flows into the asset management division had grown 10 percent to R15.7bn. It declared a dividend of R5.81 a share, from R5.28 a year earlier. Liberty has promoted StanLib asset management division boss Thabo Dloti to chief executive, replacing Bruce Hemphill, who is moving on to head Standard Bank’s wealth, insurance and non-bank financial services business. The shares fell 1.08 percent to close at R118.70 yesterday. – Reuters