Liberty’s profits decline despite major improvements in SA operations
Liberty’s normalised headline earnings for the year to December 2018 decreased by 17%
Liberty’s turnaround strategy has helped it deliver double-digit growth in its SA insurance and asset management businesses. However, bad investment returns and a R166m loss from operations the company wants to dispose of dented the group’s headline earnings. On Thursday morning, Standard Bank’s insurance subsidiary reported a 17% decline in net profit for the year to end-December. Liberty’s normalised headline earnings for its 2018 financial year decreased to R2.26bn, even though operating earnings were up 42% before the inclusion of LibFin Investments. Libfin, which is a large balance fund that invests capital Liberty has to hold for solvency reasons, reported an 81% decline in earnings.
Most of Liberty’s operations outside SA recorded losses. Its rest of Africa insurance business was the hardest hit, recording a 300% decline in normalised headline earnings. Stanlib Africa narrowed its loss to R19m from R226m at the end of 2017. The health business continued to increase its ...
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