STEPHEN CRANSTON: Rocky road to recovery
Insurers aren’t supermarkets. Of course they make a margin on policies sold but in practice they are geared plays on investment markets
We chose Momentum Metropolitan Life (MML) as our hot stock for 2020 in the life sector. So it was with keen interest that I tuned in to its unusually detailed third-quarter update. MML has been improving steadily over the past three years under its reset and grow strategy.Many financial advisers decided to support MML again on the day it was announced that the former CEO Hillie Meyer was coming back, with Jeanette Marais as deputy CEO.Marais started the Momentum Wealth linked product operation, which is arguably the group’s core business. As soon as she came back, the fall in MML’s broker market share reversed.The third member of the turnaround crew, finance director Risto Ketola, did not come up the ranks of group finance. Formerly a top analyst, he even relocated his SA life research operation to his native Finland for a while.And his expertise in remote working has been helpful during the lockdown.In an operational update, MML says profit in the March quarter increased on the pre...
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