MMI investors likely to go without dividends for a while yet
Insurance group MMI’s decision to repurchase shares rather than pay dividends during its 2018 financial year has not been well received by investors, who have sent its share price down 15% over the past year.MMI reported on Tuesday morning it had reduced its shares in issue by nearly 3% to 1.5-billion during its 2018 financial year.The insurer said in its interim results it would repurchase shares rather than pay dividends as long as the JSE price of its shares is below their embedded value.Wednesday’s full-year results indicated shareholders will not receive dividends in its 2019 financial year either, since its embedded value per share was R25.43 at June 30, a 47% premium to the R17.28 it last traded at.The group, created by merging life insurers Metropolitan and Momentum, reported net earnings declined by 10% to R1.4bn during the year to end-June.Its top line, which it calls net insurance premiums, grew 6% to R29.9bn."It is not easy to turn around a comprehensive financial servic...
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