Dividend boost for Alexforbes shareholders

Retirement and investment group Alexforbes posted a 14% increase in operating profit to R911 million for the year ended 31 March 2025, driven by solid revenue growth, improved client retention and efficiency gains.

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Alexforbes ups dividend spurred by strong inflows

Total closing assets (including assets under administration and management) jumped 14% to R599 billion.

Headline earnings per share from total operations rose 15% to 70.8 cents, while normalised headline earnings per share increased by 23% to 69.1 cents. Operating income climbed 13% to R4.4 billion.

Shareholders are set to benefit from a higher full-year dividend and an additional special dividend. The board declared a final gross cash dividend of 33 cents per share, up 10% from the prior year, taking the total dividend for the year to 55 cents. A special dividend of 10 cents per share was also declared, linked to the successful conclusion of litigation around the enhanced transfer values (ETV) liability matter.

Alexforbes CEO Dawie de Villiers says the group remains capital-strong, with a regulatory surplus of R1.35 billion and a cover ratio of 2.3 times — well above the target of 1.2 times.

De Villiers notes that the group’s strong results for the period under review were underpinned by positive market growth, which resulted in higher average assets under management, inflationary increases from within its retirements and healthcare consulting client base, and high client retention.

“In addition, consolidation of acquisitions completed in previous financial years and higher than expected two-pot claims volumes also contributed to our top line.”

New business 

New institutional business flows for the year amounted to R35 billion. The institutional product offering (assets under management) was up 11% while the platform administration offering (assets under administration) grew 26% year on year.

New retail business flows increased 34% to R28 billion, including R2.2 billion in assets under advice for the recently launched discretionary fund management offering, Investment Solutions™ by Alexforbes.

Closing retail assets under advisement are up 12% year on year to reach R112 billion. Additionally, retail assets under management are up 11% year on year to reach R107 billion.

Two-pot claims

For the period of 1 September 2024 to 31 March 2025, Alexforbes processed over 480 000 claims from the savings component under the two-pot retirement system.

These claims amounted to a cumulative gross withdrawal of R7.7 billion, of which R5.5 billion was from Alexforbes portfolios (assets under management and administration).

“Evidencing the group’s careful and considered approach to the two-pot implementation, 95% of normal benefit payments were processed within standard servicing levels despite the additional complexity of managing such claims in a post two-pot environment,” De Villiers notes.

The group anticipates that the two-pot system will improve retirement outcomes for new members by up to 2.5 times on average over the long term.

“While we saw large volumes of withdrawals in the first month from the effective date of the legislation the months thereafter have seen lower levels of withdrawals reaching a consistent monthly withdrawal level by year end.”

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