{"id":862109,"date":"2026-06-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=862109"},"modified":"2026-06-01T14:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:34:07","slug":"biggest-medical-aid-transfer-in-south-africas-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/862109\/biggest-medical-aid-transfer-in-south-africas-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Biggest medical aid transfer in South Africa’s history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Momentum Health has officially taken over the administration of the Bonitas Medical Fund, significantly boosting its market share with the largest transfer of a medical aid in South Africa’s history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Momentum took over the administration of Bonitas from Medscheme, ending a 43-year-long partnership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the addition of 750,000 members to its administration, Momentum’s market share in the medical scheme market has increased from 22% to 30%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that Momentum is now the second-largest medical scheme administrator in South Africa, and is just behind Discovery, which still holds a market share above 50%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing selected as the preferred healthcare administration partner for Bonitas Medical Fund affirms our leadership in the health administration market,\u201d Momentum Group CEO Jeanette Marais previously said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt results in the biggest transfer of a medical scheme from one provider to another in the history of South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an operating update for the nine months ended 31 March 2026, the group said that its health team has been preparing to onboard Bonitas Medical Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would ensure that its people, processes, data and systems were aligned and ready for the 1 June commencement date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 9-month period, Momentum Health saw its normalised headline earnings (NHE) grow 35% to R343 million compared to the prior period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was driven by growth in overall membership, favourable underwriting experience in capitation contracts, and strong expense management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its overall membership grew 5% year-on-year to 1.36 million, driven by sustained growth in the public segment (2%) and Health4Me (23%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was driven by a growing need for affordable healthcare insurance, the group said, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Momentum Medical Scheme membership remained stable, while membership remained under pressure in the corporate segment, reflecting affordability pressures and a lower employee base,” it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Africa segment, health membership grew 14%, supported by the onboarding of a large client in Mozambique and membership gains from new groups following a competitor’s exit from Lesotho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Momentum is booming<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

For the period, the group said it delivered strong financial performance, with its NHE growing 15% to R5,540 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NHE per share outpaced this growth, growing by 20% to 414 cents from 346 cents. This was due to share buybacks during the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that the earnings performance was underpinned by strong contributions across all of the group’s operating business units. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that new business activity was strong, with the Present value of new business premiums (PVNBP) supported by strong investment flows in Momentum Corporate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were also major corporate scheme wins in Momentum Africa and further growth in Momentum Investments’ Wealth platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the positive sales momentum, the group’s value of new business (VNB) declined by 4% to R347 million, with the new business margin contracting to 0.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decline was mainly due to Momentum Investments, where VNB declined sharply following an industry-wide shift from life annuities to living annuities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that lower bond yields made guaranteed annuity income less attractive. However, the overall decline in VNB was slightly offset by strong VNB recoveries in Momentum Retail and Momentum Life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shareholders’ segment reported a NHE loss of R37 million, primarily due to a large reduction in investment returns driven by poor venture capital performance and a focus on solvency over growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

R million<\/strong><\/td>3QF2026<\/strong><\/td>3QF2025<\/strong>*<\/td>Change %<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Momentum Retail<\/td>973<\/td>967<\/td>1%<\/td><\/tr>
Momentum Investments<\/td>992<\/td>647<\/td>53%<\/td><\/tr>
Metropolitan Life<\/td>767<\/td>636<\/td>21%<\/td><\/tr>
Momentum Corporate<\/td>1 136<\/td>1 127<\/td>1%<\/td><\/tr>
Momentum Africa<\/td>304<\/td>190<\/td>60%<\/td><\/tr>
Guardrisk<\/td>693<\/td>598<\/td>16%<\/td><\/tr>
Momentum Insure<\/td>366<\/td>336<\/td>9%<\/td><\/tr>
Momentum Health<\/td>343<\/td>254<\/td>35%<\/td><\/tr>
India<\/td>3<\/td>(42)<\/td>>100%<\/td><\/tr>
Normalised headline earnings from operating business units<\/strong><\/td>5 577<\/strong><\/td>4 713<\/strong><\/td>18%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Shareholders segment<\/td>(37)<\/td>115<\/td>(<100)%<\/td><\/tr>
Normalised headline earnings<\/strong><\/td>5 540<\/strong><\/td>4 828<\/strong><\/td>15%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
*Changed to reflect the current operating model<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Having taken over the administration of the Bonitas Medical Fund, Momentum has grown into the second-largest medical aid in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":792573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[12344,6652],"class_list":["post-862109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-bonitas","tag-momentum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862109","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862109"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862145,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862109\/revisions\/862145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}