MTN Rwanda swings from losses to profits (JSE: MTN)
Revenue and EBITDA margin have both improved
If you dig through the MTN Rwanda results, you’ll find restatements that impact the comparability of numbers and make things more complicated. But you’ll also find a profit after tax of Rwf 10.8 billion, which is a whole lot better than a loss after tax of Rwf 5.4 billion in the comparable period.
If we focus on the business rather than the noise in the numbers, total subscribers were up 7.4% and service revenue increased by 14.7%. This is exactly what you want to see in frontier markets like Rwanda, where the average revenue per user (ARPU) should be increasing over time as customers take more products.
EBITDA increased by 17.3%, with EBITDA margin moving 100 basis points higher to 35.8%.
As the cherry on top, capex (excluding leases) decreased by 8%. This means that it was a strong period for adjusted free cash flow, up by 34.5% for the year.
Double-digit dividend growth at Resilient (JSE: RES)
The retail-focused REIT is doing well
Resilient REIT has released results for the year ended December 2025. The company focuses on owning retail centres that have at least three anchor tenants. This certainly seems to be working, with the total dividend for 2025 coming in 11.4% higher than the prior year.
The South African portfolio achieved growth in net property income of 8.1% for the year. Retail sales in the portfolio increased by 4.9%. Lease renewals achieved positive reversions of 2.2%.
It’s also worth noting that Resilient is one of the many property companies in South Africa that have executed renewable energy projects to protect against Eskom-related inflation. Resilient takes it to the next level though, with an expectation that 43.2% of energy requirements will be provided by solar by the end of 2026.
In the offshore portfolio, the dividend from Lighthouse Properties (JSE: LTE) increased by 7.5% in euros, or 10.5% in rand. Resilient also has direct stakes in properties in France and Spain, with both regions showing positive growth. The company has recently been reducing the stake in Lighthouse, so it will be interesting to see how the offshore strategy develops.
A complicated period for Sanlam (JSE: SLM)
There are plenty of normalisation adjustments in these numbers
Sanlam has released results for the year ended December. As we already know from the recent operational update, they are complex results that reflect a significant drop in HEPS of 18%.
The dividend per share is up by 9% though, suggesting that HEPS may not be telling the full story here.
There were a number of major steps taken during the past two years that limit the comparability of 2025 to the prior year. This includes the cessation of the Capitec partnership, the integration of the Namibian holdings into SanlamAllianz, as well as the partial disposal of the direct stake in Shriram Finance – all in 2024. And in 2025, Sanlam reduced its interest in SanlamAllianz from 59.59% to 51%.
As you’re about to see, the difference between reported numbers and normalised numbers is significant.
New business volumes were up by 18% as reported, or 22% on a normalised basis, taking them to a record performance for the group. The margin mix is unfavourable though, which means that value of new business fell by 11% on a normalised basis.
The net result from financial services increased by 3% as reported, or 20% on a normalised basis. This metric will be replaced by operating profit going forwards.
Operational earnings fell 7%, with lower investment returns in the second half of 2025 as a major challenge. The strenghtening of the rand impacted the value of foreign-currency denominated assets.
Return on group equity value was 13.4% as reported, or 15.7% on an adjusted basis. The hurdle rate is 14.7%, so those adjustments are the difference between falling short vs. exceeding it.
It was a choppy year for the group, with the share price up 11% over 12 months.
A solid year for Standard Bank (JSE: SBK)
2025 was a good time to be in Africa
Standard Bank has released results for the year ended December 2025. As we saw at rival Absa (JSE: ABG) just the other day, it was a solid period for banks who have exposure to the macroeconomic recovery in the rest of Africa.
The group generated 51% of earnings in the period in South Africa, 40% in the Africa Regions business unit, 6% in the Offshore unit and 3% from the stake in ICBC Standard Bank. It’s a good mix that gives Standard Bank some proper growth engines.
Net interest income increased by 4%, and non-interest revenue was up by an impressive 10%. This resulted in a blended increase in net income of 6%, with operating expenses up by a similar percentage.
These growth rates were underpinned by a meaningful uptick in lending activity. For example, business lending origination was up by 21% year-on-year. This is a show of faith in the underlying economic picture.
Thanks to impairments only growing by 5%, banking headline earnings increased by 8%.
Things get a lot better after that, with the insurance and asset management business up 26%, while attributable earnings from ICBC Standard Bank jumped by 46%.
Group headline earnings increased by 11%. The dividend was 12% higher, reflecting a 56% payout ratio.
The cost-to-income ratio has been on an excellent trajectory. Ignoring the worst of the pandemic period where it was much higher, the ratio has improved from 51.5% in FY23 to 50.2% in FY25. That’s a significant improvement over two years. It’s worth noting that software and technology is a major area of investment, so that should drive further efficiencies in years to come.
Return on equity showed strong improvement in FY25. It came in at 19.3%, well above the 18.5% reported in FY24, or 18.8% in FY23.
The 2026 outlook includes an expected mid-to-high single digits growth rate in banking revenue, as well as further improvement to return on equity. They expect the cost-to-income ratio to keep improving as well, so that will help boost margins.
End of an era at Woolworths (JSE: WHL)
Roy Bagattini is retiring; Sam Ngumeni takes the top job
Woolworths announced that CEO Roy Bagattini will be retiring at the end of September 2026. I don’t think you’ll find too many investors who feel that his remuneration over a six-year period was justified by the performance of the group, but that’s often how these things go.
Personally, I’m glad to see that his replacement is an internal appointment, especially after South African retailers went through a phase of bringing in offshore CEOs. This seems to be behind us now, with Sam Ngumeni stepping into the CEO role with effect from 1 June 2026.
This means that the final few months of Bagattini’s time at Woolworths will be for handover purposes.
Ngumeni has been with the group for nearly 30 years and currently runs the Woolworths Food division. It’s rare to see a career path of this nature these days. I think this is an exciting appointment.
What is your view on foreign vs. local CEOs?
Nibbles:
- Director dealings:
- Here’s an unusual one: a non-executive director of Discovery (JSE: DSY) bought preference shares worth over R5 million.
- An associate of a director of Northam Platinum (JSE: NPH) bought shares worth almost R2 million.
- An associate of a director of NEPI Rockcastle (JSE: NRP) bought shares and CFDs to the value of R362k,
- A non-executive director of Supermarket Income REIT (JSE: SRI) bought shares worth R336k.
- Montauk Renewables (JSE: MKR) released results for the year ended December 2025. This is a pretty obscure name on the JSE – a situation that won’t change for as long as their results presentation primarily consists of screenshots of their complicated SEC-filed financial statements. Revenue was up 0.4%, but EBITDA fell by 21.2% and HEPS dropped sharply by 62.5%.
- SAB Zenzele Kabili (JSE: SZK) has released a trading statement for the year ended December 2025. HEPS is the wrong metric entirely, so I’m glad to see that they also include net asset value per share in this trading statement. The expected range is between R36.37 and R39.19, an increase of 29% to 39%. That’s a good year! The share price is R30, having come all the way down since the ridiculous situation in 2021 when people simply would not listen to reason about buying the stock way above the net asset value.
- Jubilee Metals (JSE: JBL) secured a further $1.8 million worth of high-grade run-of-mine material for the Roan concentrator. They will pay for it through the issue of shares at a 14.3% premium to the closing price as at 9 March 2026. In a similar vein, the sellers of the Large Waste Project have elected to receive the next tranche of $2.6 million in the form of Jubilee shares, also at a 14.3% premium. When a junior mining company can pay in shares rather than cash, you know things are going well.
- RFG Holdings (JSE: RFG) and Premier Group (JSE: PMR) announced that their scheme of arrangement has now become unconditional. As you may recall, Premier is acquiring RFG in a share-based transaction. The listing of RFG will be terminated from 31 March.
- Alexander Forbes (JSE: AFH) is executing a small related party transaction with ARC that monetises the shares held in escrow as incentive awards. This increases ARC’s stake in the company from 47.53% to 49.88%. R249 million will be changing hands, so the execs are unlocking a serious amount of cash.
- Southern Palladium (JSE: SDL) released results for the six months to December 2025. They are still in the exploration phase, so the only revenue is interest income on cash. The operating loss for the period was A$5 million, a good reminder of how expensive it is to bring a mine from dream to reality.
