{"id":873479,"date":"2026-09-03T10:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=873479"},"modified":"2026-09-03T10:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T08:17:26","slug":"severe-weather-hammers-south-africas-largest-short-term-insurer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/873479\/severe-weather-hammers-south-africas-largest-short-term-insurer\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe weather hammers South Africa’s largest short-term insurer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African insurer Santam has reported a significant drop in its margins due to increased claims from adverse and severe weather conditions in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group reported slight revenue growth for the six months ended June 2026, but recorded a drop in its underwriting margin from 11.3% in 2025 to 8.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company attributed this to major losses from severe weather in Limpopo and the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several provinces in the country have been hit by adverse weather, prompting the government to classify multiple states of disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Provinces have been hit by strong, destructive winds and heavy flooding, doing billions of rands worth of damage to property and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the severe weather and storms, Santam’s property insurance portfolio remained profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The insurer increased its gross written premiums to R23 billion in the six months ended 30 June, up roughly 10% from R20.9 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its net earned premiums were R18.9 billion, up approximately R1 billion from 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is particularly pleasing that the property class remained profitable despite the adverse claims experience,” Santam said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite growing its book, the company’s underwritings took a hit, with profits from these core operations dropping year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, the group recorded R1.8 billion in underwriting profit, which fell to R1.6 billion in the 2026 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s international underwriting results were more concerning, reporting an underwriting loss of approximately R75 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While its core operations saw profitability decline, investment returns on insurance funds rose slightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The return was 2.9% in 2026, compared to 2.6% in 2025, which the company attributed to “solid
returns on local and global fixed-income investments, as well as outperformance of portfolio benchmarks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santam’s alternative risk transfer business grew, increasing its profit contribution to the company by 12% to R466 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santam’s basic earnings per share reached R20.06 in 2026, with diluted earnings per share reaching R19.91.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s investment return on capital increased significantly year-on-year, reaching R727 million in the latest interim period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Return on capital amounted to R35 million in 2025, marking a near 2,000% increase in earnings from this section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International expansion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Santam saw its book grow in its latest interim period, with international expansions into India and the UK adding to positive prospects for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santam was founded in 1918 and is currently one of South Africa’s largest insurance providers, focusing on short-term property and vehicle insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is considered the largest short-term insurer in the country, with a market cap of roughly R47.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its latest interim period, the company’s conventional earnings reached R2.8 billion, slightly above the R2.5 billion made in the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major driver of Santam’s increased profits for 2026 was its expansion into London through the launch of Syndicate 1918 and its new operations in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syndicate 1918 is Santam’s expansion into the UK market, providing underwriting services within the Lloyd’s market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its interim results, the group said Syndicate 1918 concluded business with an estimated R1.3 billion in gross written premiums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these are strong results for the new operation, the deferral of premium income resulted in Syndicate 1918 recording an underwriting loss of R230 million for the interim period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santam also opened its GIFT City office in India, furthering its international expansion efforts into what the company believes is a promising market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“India holds significant future growth prospects which we will now be able to better access due to the
improved tiering we obtained through the GIFT City presence,” the company said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These two initiatives have the potential to transform the group into a global multinational insurer with substantially enhanced growth prospects.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Santam financial results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>Six months ended 30 June 2026<\/strong><\/td>Six months ended 30 June 2025<\/strong><\/td>Change %<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Insurance revenue<\/strong><\/td>R28 billion<\/td>R27.5 billion<\/td>+1.8%<\/td><\/tr>
Profit<\/strong><\/td>R2.8 billion<\/td>R2.5 billion<\/td>+12.0%<\/td><\/tr>
HEPS<\/strong><\/td>R20.06<\/td>R18.73<\/td>+7.1%<\/td><\/tr>
Cash generated from operations<\/strong><\/td>R3.4 billion<\/td>R4.1 billion<\/td>-17.1%<\/td><\/tr>
Dividend<\/strong> (cents)<\/td>650<\/td>590<\/td>+10.2%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African insurer Santam has reported a significant drop in its margins due to increased claims from adverse and severe weather conditions in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":812737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2095426080714768494","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2194550428032023","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18177322825430313","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[26390,341,26389],"class_list":["post-873479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-gift-city","tag-santam","tag-syndicate-1918"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873479","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873479"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873531,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873479\/revisions\/873531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}