JOHANNESBURG - Investment, savings, insurance and banking group Old Mutual on Monday announced an eight percent growth in headline earnings in its first full year financial results since its primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange last June.
Old Mutual also announced its intention to conduct a share buy-back programme of approximately R2 billion in 2019.
Earnings for the year to December climbed to R14.2 billion from R13.1 billion the previous year and CEO Peter Moyo said the group delivered well on its medium-term targets and commitments to investors.
“We delivered return on net asset value of 18.6 percent which exceeds our cost of equity +4 percent target, which sat at 17.4 percent for 2018. We continue to be a highly cash generative business with R6.6 billion of free cash generated in 2018 which has more than covered our dividends to our shareholders."
Old Mutual announced a final dividend of 72 cents per share, bringing its total ordinary dividend per share to 117 cents a share.
It said taking into account the planned share buy-back, the special dividends paid in October 2018 and the Nedbank unbundling, the total distribution to shareholders since listing equated to nearly R52 billion.
“We have managed our capital well and continue to be responsible to our shareholders in the way we deploy capital,” Moyo said.
"Whilst we continue to see economic headwinds in the near term, our group is resilient, well capitalised and managing its costs tightly,” he added.