Wrap Text
Audited annual results for the year ended 31 December 2025 and dividend declaration
Sanlam Limited
Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa Sanlam Life Insurance Limited
(Registration number 1959/001562/06) (Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
("Sanlam", "Sanlam Group" or "the group") (Registration No. 1998/021121/06)
JSE Share code: SLM Bond Issuer Code: BISLI
A2X share code: SLM LEI: 378900E10332DF012A23
NSX share code: SLA ("Sanlam Life")
ISIN: ZAE000070660
Audited annual results for the year ended 31 December 2025 and dividend declaration
Key performance indicators
Normalised1
For the year ended 31 December Unit 2025 2024 % change
% change
Earnings
Management information
Net result from financial services (NRFFS)2,3 R million 15 939 15 443 3% 20%
Net operational earnings2,4 R million 17 154 18 544 (7%) 5%
Headline earnings R million 16 550 20 083 (18%)
Profit attributable to shareholders R million 15 941 22 240 (28%)
Weighted average number of shares million 2 114 2 111 0%
Adjusted weighted average number of shares million 2 114 2 115 0%
Headline earnings per share cents 792 964 (18%)
Diluted headline earnings per share cents 783 952 (18%)
Dividend per share cents 485 445 9%
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) information
Profit attributable to shareholders per share cents 763 1 068 (29%)
Diluted profit attributable to shareholders per share cents 754 1 054 (28%)
Business volumes
Total new business volumes R million 495 990 420 236 18% 22%
Total net client cash flows R million 126 752 54 141 >100% >100%
Life insurance
New business volumes (PVNBP)5 R million 113 854 103 231 10% 17%
Value of new covered business R million 2 294 2 902 (21%) (11%)
New covered business margin % 2,01 2,81
Life insurance net client cash flows R million 35 694 16 737 >100% >100%
General insurance
New business volumes R million 55 182 49 139 12% 16%
Net client cash flows R million 24 421 19 966 22% 24%
Investment management
New business volumes R million 357 691 297 211 20% 24%
Net client cash flows R million 66 637 17 438 >100% >100%
Group equity value
Group equity value R million 185 559 171 810 8%
Group equity value per share cents 8 773 8 123 8%
Return on group equity value per share % 13,4 20,3
Adjusted return on group equity value per share % 15,7 18,0
Return on equity
Return on equity6 % 17,1 23
Adjusted return on equity % 18,1 21,9
Solvency cover
Sanlam group economic % 183 188
1 In 2024 constant currency with adjustments for corporate activity and specific one-off items.
2 A measure of Sanlam group's operating performance aligned with cash earnings that drive dividend distribution. NRFFS includes shareholders' fund
adjustments that reduce earnings volatility.
3 Effective 1 January 2026, net result from financial services (NRFFS) will be replaced with operating profit, and net operational earnings with ad justed
headline earnings.
4 Profit after tax earned by the group from operating activities and includes investment return earned on the capital portfolio and project expenditure.
5 Present value of new business premiums.
6 2024 return on equity has been aligned with the new reporting framework. Return on equity is based on adjusted headline earnings as a percentage of
opening shareholders' fund equity excluding consolidation reserves.
Leveraging our quality businesses to accelerate growth
Sanlam's 2025 results reflect a year of strong operational execution and strategic delivery against a
dynamic macro-economic backdrop. Financial markets were generally supportive, with higher asset
values underpinning asset-based fee income and client activity, while interest rates peaked during the
first half of the year before sharply declining in the second half of the year. Currency movements were a
notable feature of the year, with a significant strengthening of the South African rand against key
currencies toward the end of 2025, particularly the Indian rupee and US dollar.
Economic growth conditions across South Africa and the broader African markets showed gradual
improvement over the period. Moderating inflation trends provided some relief to consumers, supporting
affordability, persistency and savings behaviour across key customer segments. At the same time,
heightened climate related risks remained a feature of the operating environment in 2025, particularly for
the general insurance businesses, reinforcing the importance of prudent underwriting, reinsurance
discipline and risk selection.
Against this backdrop, Sanlam delivered excellent growth in new business volumes. These outcomes
highlight the group's strong positions across high-growth emerging markets and the quality of the group's
diversified business platforms and distribution capabilities.
The group restructured its operations to strengthen its franchise in the retail mass market in South Africa,
reinforced its partnership with Allianz in Pan-Africa (i.e. Africa ex-South Africa) and reshaped its asset
management operations to focus on high growth asset classes. Building on this strong foundation, our
Vision 2030 strategy targets faster future growth and stronger future cash generation.
New business volumes
Group new business volumes increased by 18% (22% on a normalised basis) to nearly R500 billion,
marking a record annual performance for the group. This was driven by strong flows into our South African
asset management operations and solid contributions across both life and general insurance,
demonstrating the robustness and diversification of our distribution engines across the portfolio.
Life insurance net value of new business (VNB) decreased by 11% on a normalised basis, largely driven
by a shift in product mix as clients continued to favour market-linked/living annuities over life annuities as
well as development costs associated with establishing new distribution channels in India . On an actual basis,
growth was down 21%, further impacted by the cessation of the Capitec partnership and disposal of
Namibia to the SanlamAllianz joint venture in 2024.
Net client cash flows more than doubled to R127 billion, underpinned by strong contributions across all
lines of business. South African asset management operations delivered robust net inflows. The life
business also recorded particularly strong inflows, supported by exceptional single premium corporate
and robust Glacier market-linked annuity sales, further bolstered by improved retention over the period.
General insurance delivered satisfactory growth in net flows.
Earnings
Comparability with 2024 is impacted by structural actions. These include the cessation of the Capitec
partnership, which resulted in a one-off reinsurance recapture fee in 2024, as well as the integration of
our Namibian holdings into the SanlamAllianz joint venture and the partial disposal of our direct stake in
Shriram Finance Limited during 2024. Both transactions generated significant profits on the disposal of
subsidiaries and associates during 2024. The 2025 results were impacted by Sanlam reducing its interest
in the SanlamAllianz joint venture from 59.59% to 51%.
The group achieved net result from financial services (NRFFS) of R15,9 billion, 3% higher than 2024 (3%
per share), and 20% higher on a normalised basis, benefiting from strong contributions from life insurance
and health, general insurance, investments and credit and structuring.
NRFFS benefited from favourable mortality experience and stronger asset-based fee income in our South
Africa and Pan-Africa life businesses. Underwriting experience was positive across the group's South
African general insurance operations due to lower attritional and large weather-related claims, while India
delivered satisfactory earnings. The underwriting experience in the group's Pan-Africa operations was
however negatively impacted by a sharp deterioration in claims towards the end of the year. Earnings in
these businesses were also negatively impacted by tax assessments following the integration of
businesses in the portfolio. Higher fee income from increased assets under management and favourable
market conditions supported our investment management business. Our credit and structuring activities
in both India and South Africa continued to show solid growth.
Net operational earnings decreased by 7%, primarily due to lower investment returns on following a sharp
strengthening of the South African rand in the second half of 2025. This reduced the rand value of foreign-
currency denominated assets and was compounded by hedging undertaken to mitigate rand volatility on the
India insurance transactions pending regulatory approval, as well as higher US dollar balances held by Santam
in anticipation of the launch of the Lloyd's syndicate. Underlying investment performance in local currencies
remained sound. Net operational earnings were further affected by a full?year impact of Assupol transaction
financing costs and increased project related expenditure largely associated with establishing Syndicate 1918
and progressing the SFL/MUFG transaction.
Headline earnings declined by 18%, largely due to corporate activity and structural changes in 2024 and
2025, lower investment returns in shareholder funds due to the strengthening of the rand in 2025, as well as
negative investment variances. Despite the large fall in yields in 2025, effective hedging of guaranteed liabilities
resulted in marginal investment variances arising. However, an anomaly arising from the shortage of SA
government bonds at the longest duration gave rise to an unrealised loss of R967 million, gross of tax, in 2025.
The negative investment variances arising from the anomaly in long-dated bond yields were largely offset by
positive investment variances on negative rand reserves at Assupol, as well as gains from the SanlamAllianz
portfolio, particularly reflecting the strong performance of the Moroccan equity market.
The total investment variance for 2025, net of tax, was an unrealised loss of R405 million, which was
transferred to the asset mismatch reserve (AMR).
Attributable earnings decreased by 28%, reflecting the significantly lower disposal gains from
subsidiaries and associates relative to the prior year's elevated base, in addition to the factors explained
above.
Revised earnings framework
As communicated at the Capital Markets Day in October 2025 and in our nine-month operational update,
the group has adopted a new financial reporting framework aligned with IFRS 17, reflecting our focus on
simpler and clearer reporting. The naming conventions and definitions of key earnings metrics have been
revised accordingly.
Effective 1 January 2026, net result from financial services (NRFFS) will be replaced with operating
profit, and net operational earnings with adjusted headline earnings. Both measures remove Sanlam-
specific shareholders' fund adjustments and reflect full investment market movements, resulting in greater
period-to-period volatility as investment variances will no longer be smoothed for profit-reporting
purposes. In addition, project expenses, previously included under net operational earnings, are now
reported as part of operating profit and adjusted headline earnings.
Importantly, our dividend policy remains unchanged: we will continue to smooth investment variances
when determining cash available for distribution, supported by the substantial reserves that remain on
the balance sheet. Dividend impact will also continue to be shielded from pre-funded project costs as
these are funded by established reserves. As a result, while operating profit is expected to be more
volatile than under our historic NRFFS approach, dividends are expected to remain smooth, steady and
unaffected by the change in reporting methodology. The 2026 financial year will establish the operating
profit baseline.
Value creation
Group equity value per share was R87,73 on 31 December 2025. RoGEV and adjusted RoGEV per share
was 13,4% and 15,7% respectively for 2025, with adjusted RoGEV ahead of the hurdle rate of 14,7%.
The adjusted RoGEV result was achieved through the addition of strong VNB (albeit at a lower level than
2024), positive experience variances in the life insurance operations, a strong underwriting result at
Santam and good performance in the investment and credit operations. The group impaired the value of
its investments in Afrocentric and Malaysian general insurance. Coupled with the weak results from the
Pan-African general insurance business, this negatively impacted the adjusted RoGEV. Actual RoGEV
was slightly lower than adjusted RoGEV. The positive impact from net investment variances and
economic assumption changes were insufficient to offset the negative foreign currency impact on RoGEV
arising from the strengthening of the rand which had the effect of reducing the value of the group's
operations outside South Africa.
Shareholders are advised that a final gross cash dividend of 485 cents per share was declared for the
year ended 31 December 2025, an increase of 9% on the prior year dividend. The dividend is payable on
Monday, 13 April 2026 by way of electronic bank transfers to ordinary shareholders recorded in the
register of Sanlam at close of business on Friday, 10 April 2026. The last date to trade to qualify for this
dividend will be Tuesday, 7 April 2026, and Sanlam shares will trade ex-dividend from Wednesday,
8 April 2026. Share certificates may not be dematerialised or rematerialised between Wednesday, 8 April
2026 and Friday, 10 April 2026, both dates included. Shareholders who have not yet provided their
banking details for dividend payments are requested to do so by contacting Sanlam's transfer secretary,
Computershare, at 0861 100 913 or +27 (0)11 370 5000.
The South African dividend withholding tax regime applies in respect of this dividend. The dividend in full
will be subject to the 20% withholding tax, where applicable, which results in a net dividend, to the
shareholders who are not exempt from paying dividend tax, of 388 cents per share. The number of
ordinary shares in issue in the company's share capital as at the date of the declaration is 2,089,788,801
excluding treasury shares of 27,365,148. The company's tax reference number is 9536/346/84/5.
This short-form results announcement is the responsibility of the Sanlam board of directors and is a
summary of the information contained in the audited consolidated annual financial statements for the year
ended 31 December 2025 (Annual Financial Statements) which can be found at:
https://senspdf.jse.co.za/documents/2026/jse/isse/slm/FY25.pdf and together with further commentary
https://www.sanlam.com/downloads/results-announcements/2025/2025-annual-results-spreads.pdf on
the Sanlam website.
The Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 have been independently
audited by the group's joint auditors, PwC Inc. and KPMG Inc. Their audit report containing an unmodified
audit opinion, along with the Annual Financial Statements are available for inspection at the company's
registered office and available at https://www.sanlam.com/downloads/integrated-report-and-annual-
financial-statements/2025/Sanlam-AFS-2025-spreads.pdf on Sanlam's website.
Copies of the Annual Financial Statements are available for inspection at, or may be requested from the
Company Secretary, Sanlam's registered office and the offices of its sponsor during office hours or online
at www.sanlam.com, at no charge. Any investment decision should be based on a consideration of the
Annual Financial Statements.
SANLAM LIMITED
Registered office: 2 Strand Road, Bellville, 7530, South Africa
Sanlam Investor Relations
E-mail: ir@sanlam.co.za
JSE SPONSOR
Equity Sponsor to Sanlam
The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited
Debt Sponsor to Sanlam Life Insurance Limited
The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited
NSX sponsor
Simonis Storm Securities (Pty) Ltd
12 March 2026
Date: 12-03-2026 09:00:00
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