Johannesburg - South Africa's fourth-largest insurer Liberty Holdings reported an 8 percent drop in half-year profit on Friday as low economic growth and a rise in unemployment put pressure on consumer disposable income, sending its shares down 5 percent.
BEE normalised headline earnings per share, a measure which excludes the impact of a black economic empowerment scheme and other one-off items, fell 8 percent to 650 cents in the six months to June 2016 versus 705.5 cents a year earlier.
“With the tough economic environment, i.e volatile markets and unemployment, we're starting to see a strong increase in claims so that is impacting the consumer directly,” CEO Thabo Dloti told Reuters.
Total assets under management increased moderately to R679 billion ($48 billion) compared with R668 billion.
Headline earnings from the group's South African retail operations of R718 million were 18 percent down compared to 2015.
Board has approved and declared a gross interim dividend of 276 cents per ordinary share.
Six-month new business margins at 1.4 percent lower compared with 2 percent in the previous year.
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Six-month net customer cash inflows were positive at R600 million compared with R3.5 billion.
By 0747 GMT, shares in Liberty fell 5.90 percent to R123.50.
REUTERS