> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Sanlam's headline earnings are falling while its reported earnings rise by a third
- URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/sanlam-trading-statement-heps-eps-ninety-one-shriram/
- Published: 2026-08-29T06:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-29T05:59:59.000Z
- Description: One-off gains from selling its asset manager and from a dilution in India lift one profit measure and are stripped straight back out of the other.
- Author: Christian Maidman
- Tags: Companies, Business Bagel News

Two profit numbers out of the same six months at Sanlam are pointing in opposite directions, and the difference is what each one is allowed to count. Headline earnings per share for the half to 30 June are expected to come in between 372 and 418 cents, somewhere between a tenth and a fifth below the 465 cents of a year ago.

The other measure goes the other way. Basic earnings per share are expected between 607 and 656 cents, a rise of 24% to 34%. The diluted versions of both move by the same percentages.

## The two gains only one measure counts

Headline earnings exist to strip the one-off items out, and this half is a demonstration of why. Two things lifted the basic number. Sanlam sold its active asset management business to Ninety One, a deal concluded in February that left the insurer holding 12.5% of the fund manager. It also booked a gain when its shareholding in India's Shriram Finance was diluted by a capital injection from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Sanlam said that gain crystallises value in a long-held investment, with new capital coming in at a valuation that recognises Shriram's growth and supports what its own remaining stake is worth. Both gains sit inside basic earnings and outside headline earnings, which is why the two move apart.

## What actually got worse

The fall in headline earnings comes off the investment side rather than the insurance side. Sanlam said shareholder investment returns were lower than a year earlier across the portfolio, pointing to a negative fair value movement on its listed exposure to Ninety One after that transaction closed on 2 February, and to weaker market conditions in Morocco and India. Ninety One's share price is down more than 19% since the end of February, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran and financial markets dislocated, though on a year-to-date basis it is only 4.9% lower. No source has put a rand figure on the mark-to-market hit.

Insurance carried its own drag. Elevated weather-related losses and large claims hit general insurance earnings in both South Africa and the Pan-African book, which takes in Santam and the venture with Allianz. Against that, Sanlam said business volumes and net client cash flows were strong, and that a diversified portfolio and a strong capital position kept supporting value creation and cash generation.

Sanlam's shares slid more than 2% on the day, to R85.02\. Keagan Higgins, an investment analyst at Anchor Capital, told News24 the trading statement looked broadly in line with expectations, with the main pressure coming from lower shareholder investment returns, the Ninety One mark and the weaker Moroccan and Indian markets. What he is watching at the results is new business growth, margins on new business and cash flows. Those land on 10 September.