Old Mutual Limited expects a drop of over 20 percent in headline earnings for the year ended 31 December 2020 citing the impact COVID-19 pandemic has had on its business operations, 263Chat Business has learnt.
Operating conditions across all its business operations have remained challenging during the second half of 2020, the Group announced in its operations update this morning, preceding the announcement of its results for the year to December to be published end of February.
“We expect HEPS and EPS for the year ended 31 December 2020 to be more than 20 percent lower than the reported HEPS and EPS for the comparable period (FY 2019 HEPS: 236.1 cents, FY 2019 EPS: 208.3 cents) due to the significant impact COVID-19 has had on our business operations and results,”
“A further trading statement will be published to provide more specific guidance once we have reasonable certainty regarding the extent of the decline and the related ranges of the expected decrease in HEPS and EPS,” said the company.
The pan-African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group has seen its operations disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns across the region imposed to curb the spread of the virus.
The Group, also listed in a number of African stock markets including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe said it’s concerned about the rapidly increasing rate of COVID-19 infections in its key geographies and the impact that the pandemic could have on customers, economic recovery, and mortality rates.
Despite the tough economic and operating environment many of the Group key performance indicators have shown recovery in the second half.
“Our Gross Flows for the 12 months ended 31 December 2020 are R188 billion, 10% up on the prior year. Positive Net Client Cash Flow of R10,1 billion is R7,0 billion higher than the prior year, driven by strong investment flows across the Group in the second half of the period, which were partially offset by higher outflows in Old Mutual Corporate as a result of the deteriorating economic environment,” said Old Mutual.
