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Old Mutual Listings on Track as Insurer Splits Businesses

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Plc said it’s on track to complete a plan to split into four financial services businesses by the end of this year. The U.K.-based insurance company is separating its wealth management, emerging markets, lender Nedbank Group Ltd. and U.S.-based OM Asset Management Plc units after concluding that the company traded at a discount to the value of its assets. Old Mutual, which was founded in South Africa more…

Old Mutual Wealth to Absorb Some MiFID-Related Costs

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Wealth, a unit of Old Mutual Plc, said it will absorb some additional expenses when Europe’s MiFID II takes effect next year, though it hasn’t yet announced whether it will pass onto its clients the cost of external research for funds. “Absorbing costs is something we have to do and we already are,” Paul Feeney, chief executive officer of Old Mutual Wealth, said in an interview in Johannesburg on…

Old Mutual First-Half Profit Climbs as Insurer’s Split Looms

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Plc, the London insurer planning to split into four separate businesses, said first-half profit almost doubled after it reduced debt and sold shares in its U.S. asset management unit. Pre-tax adjusted operating profit rose 37 percent and net income climbed to 531 million pounds ($689 million) from 284 million pounds a year earlier, the London-based insurer said in a statement on Friday. Diluted basic earnings per ordinary share increased…

Nigerian Banks Outstrip Peers on Returning Dollar, Old Mutual Up

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LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Since the Nigerian central bank eased a dollar shortage by opening a currency-trading window for foreign investors in April, lenders in Africa’s biggest economy have soared. The local banking index is up 35 percent this quarter, outstripping South Africa’s equivalent stock gauge and MSCI’s emerging-market financials index. Even after the jump, Guaranty Trust Bank is the sole Nigerian lender in the index to trade above its book value, while none of…

Old Mutual puts China insurance joint venture stake on block

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual has put up for sale its 50 percent stake in a Chinese insurance joint venture, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, as part of a revamp of the Anglo-South African financial group and amid a tough market for foreign insurers in China. Old Mutual, which is working with financial advisers on the stake sale plan, could sell its holding in the 13-year-old life insurance joint venture…

Old Mutual Full-Year Profit Slides as South Africa Economy Slows

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Old Mutual Plc, the U.K.-based insurance company, said full-year profit dropped 7.2 percent after the pound weakened after Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and its South African operations contended with the slowest economic growth since the 2009 recession. Net income declined to 570 million pounds ($693 million) in the 12 months through December from 614 million pounds a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement on Thursday….

Old Mutual to cut stake in asset management arm via offering

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JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Financial services group Old Mutual Plc said it would sell 13 million shares in its OM Asset Management Plc arm through a public offering, as the group prepares to split into its four main businesses. The proposed split was revealed in March as regulatory changes in Europe and South Africa have made Old Mutual, which started out in 1845 as a life insurance firm in Cape Town, more complex…