{"id":312078,"date":"2019-04-17T12:31:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T10:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=312078"},"modified":"2019-04-17T12:31:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T10:31:51","slug":"psg-konsult-lifts-earnings-in-difficult-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/312078\/psg-konsult-lifts-earnings-in-difficult-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"PSG Konsult lifts earnings in difficult economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PSG Konsult on Wednesday said it increased recurring headline earnings per share by 4% for the year ended February 2019, and achieved return on equity of 21.5%.<\/p>\n<p>Core income climbed 10% to R4.6 billion, the group said, adding that total assets under management increased by 8% to R222 billion, comprising assets managed by PSG Wealth of R175 billion (7% increase) and PSG Asset Management of R47 billion (11% increase), while PSG Insure&#8217;s gross written premium amounted to R4.5 billion (36% increase).<\/p>\n<p>Additional highlights from its financial results included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Recurring headline earnings per share up 4% to 44.6 cents;<\/li>\n<li>Gross written premium up 36% to R4.5 billion;<\/li>\n<li>Number of advisers up 19% to 932 people;<\/li>\n<li>Dividend per share up 14% to 20.5 cents;<\/li>\n<li>Total assets under administration\u00a0 up 5% to R422 billion<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PSG Konsult said its board decided to approve and declare a 10% increase in the final gross dividend of 13.5 cents per share (2018: 12.3 cents per share) from income reserves for the year ended 28 February 2019. This brings the full-year increase in the total dividend to 14%.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We continue to invest in our business given our confidence in its long-term growth prospects,&#8221; chief executive officer, Francois Gouws.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Specifically, investment in technology resulted in a 29% increase in related costs, while personnel costs also increased markedly from the previous year mainly due to an\u00a0 increase in technology staff hires and 68 newly qualified graduates &#8211; 88% of which are ACI candidates. The graduates we hired are part of our continued strategy to build our own talent. &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>PSG Konsult had 254 adviser offices and 2,886 employees as at 28 February 2019, which included 932 wealth and insure advisers. A further 417 were professional associates (accountants and attorneys).<\/p>\n<p>During the year under review, the number of PSG advisers increased by 148 through\u00a0 a combination of organic growth and selected acquisitions, including the AIFA acquisition by PSG Insure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We believe strongly in building our\u00a0 own future talent and are confident that the investment in our people will allow us to continue to prosper,&#8221; Gouws said.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead, the chief executive said that the cash-generative nature of the business gives PSG Konsult several options for funding business growth initiatives and optimising risk-adjusted returns for our shareholders.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As such, the group remains confident about the prospects for continued growth. The group will continue to prioritise organic growth in our selected markets where we have a relatively low, but rapidly expanding market share.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The group will continue to focus on initiatives that enable us to service clients in an integrated manner that is seamless and market-leading. The group&#8217;s focus on products, platforms, client service excellence and the quality of its advice process remains a key initiative,&#8221; Gouws said.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/PSGKonsult.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-312080\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/PSGKonsult.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"689\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/PSGKonsult.png 689w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/PSGKonsult-300x190.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/276807\/psg-konsult-interim-headline-earnings-up-18\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PSG Konsult interim headline earnings up 18%<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PSG Konsult on Wednesday said it increased recurring headline earnings per share by 4% for the year ended February 2019, and achieved return on equity of 21.5%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":262955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26,1310],"class_list":["post-312078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline","tag-psg-konsult"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312078"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312090,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312078\/revisions\/312090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}