Commentary

The strong operating performance of the Group despite the environment has reinforced Sanlam’s purpose, which is to help our clients live with confidence by empowering them to be financially confident, secure and prosperous.

We serve all market segments across Africa and India with a broad set of products that are accessible and backed by a strong advice offering to protect and grow our clients’ wealth. Our purpose is embedded in the Group’s strategy which aims to improve our offering to clients by increasing our reach and scale through partnerships and use of digital technology.

The Group continued to execute its strategy and has made significant strides in strengthening operations in South Africa and across the continent, enabling future growth and creating competitive advantages through increased scale and product capabilities. In South Africa we completed the acquisition and integration of the Alexforbes life book. The Absa investment management, Alexforbes standalone retirement fund administration and Alexforbes LISP transactions are progressing though their respective regulatory approval processes, having received Competition authority support, and are on track to close before the end of 2022. These transactions will simplify our operations and place our group risk, asset management and LISP operations in leading positions in their respective market segments.

In Africa, the creation of a JV with Allianz will create an unrivalled platform across the continent, with significant client capabilities. The transaction is expected to close in the next 12 months. Our Pan-African general insurance operations reported an underwriting margin within the target range for the first six months of 2022, albeit it at the lower end, impacted by underperformance in the health line of business. Our life insurance operations continue to deliver profitable growth.

The Group continues to progress on digital transformation initiatives with benefits emerging in improved client experience and improved agent productivity. Our InsurTech JV with MTN (aYo) is progressing through regulatory approvals. The aYo platform has over 4 million active policies and is a key enabler of our aim to improve financial inclusion across the continent. We completed our partial exit from the UK, with only a focused international asset manager remaining.