Capitec CEO’s R105 million farewell

Outgoing Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie received over R100 million in his single-figure remuneration package in the 2025 financial year as the bank’s earnings skyrocketed.

Fourie, who has been Capitec’s CEO for over a decade, saw his single-figure remuneration rise from R65.7 million in FY24 to R104.8 million in FY25. 

His pay package included R18.8 million in guaranteed pay, R16.9 million in short-term and R75 million in long-term incentives. 

His short-term and long-term incentives drove the jump, increasing from R5.9 million and R42.9 million in FY24, respectively. 

Capitec’s CFO, Grant Hardy, also significantly increased his single-figure remuneration from R12.5 million to R20.7 million, driven by growth in his short-term and long-term incentives. 

As Hardy has only been in the role for three years, his long-term incentive balance is still in a build-up phase due to Capitec’s 6-year tranche vesting approach to LTI. 

Fourie and Hardy’s increased remuneration comes from a powerful performance by Capitec, which beat analysts’ expectations. 

The group’s headline earnings jumped by 30% to R13.7 billion, while the group’s ROE also increased from 26% to 29%. 

Moreover, the credit impairment charge on loans and advances dropped by 6% despite a 12% growth in gross loans and advances. The group’s credit loss ratio, excluding Avafin, thus dropped from 8.7% in FY24 to 6.9% in FY25.

The jump in earnings metrics came despite a 30% increase in operating expenses for the group, which included AvaFin’s operating expenses that were absent in 2024 and the increased employee incentives due to higher headline earnings. 

With the jump in headline earnings and ROE, Capitec’s board declared a final gross dividend of 4,425 cents per ordinary share, bringing the total dividend to 6,510 cents. 

The annual dividend payout ratio was amended from 50% to 55% amid the higher ROE, returning more headline earnings to shareholders.  

Management changes at Capitec

The R105 million package will be Fourie’s last for a full year, as he will retire from Capitec following the group’s AGM in July.

His remuneration for the 2026 financial year and post-retirement will be detailed in next year’s remuneration report. 

Fourie has been part of the executive management team for 25 years, 11 of which were as CEO. 

“The board is grateful to Gerrie for the incredible leadership role that he has played, and his entrenched legacy of a high-performance culture in the business will live on,” said Capitec. 

“As Capitec has diversified over the past 4 years, Gerrie expanded the executive structure to include divisional executive teams responsible for Personal banking, Business banking, Insurance and Strategic initiatives.” 

This change built a strong senior leadership team with expertise and experience. With Fourie’s retirement, the question of succession in Capitec’s executive team became a priority for the group.

Thus, Graham Lee was identified as Fourie’s replacement and will become Group CEO and a board member on 19 July 2025. 

Lee is the Executive responsible for Personal Banking. He has been a member of the group executive team since 2022 and joined Capitec in 2003.

He has held several strategic positions in credit, technology and data, retail operations and the Retail Bank division at Capitec.  He is a Chartered Management Accountant and holds a BBusSci (Hons) and an MBA. 

Lee will be replaced by Basani Maluleke, who will take over as the Executive for Personal Banking and as a group EXCO member.

Maluleke joined Capitec in 2021 and previously served as the CEO of Capitec’s rival African Bank. She has been Divisional Executive for Operations at Capitec for four years. 

“With these two roles being filled with internal candidates, we are satisfied that our succession strategy is working,” said Capitec. 

“We are also confident in the quality and strength of our internal succession pipeline and continue to emphasise growing our black management appointments as we expand.