Old Mutual Ltd said on Tuesday that sales momentum continued into the third quarter of 2024 and indicated that it is ‘well positioned’ to deal with influx of claims related to the two-pot retirement regime.

The Anglo-South African financial services firm reported a 7.4% rise in gross written premiums to R 20.73 billion for the third quarter of 2024 from R 19.30 billion in the same quarter last year, driven mainly by strong new business and rate increases in Old Mutual Insure, particularly in the Specialty business.

Gross flows rose 19% to R 170.22 billion from R 142.75 billion, owing to ‘excellent’ inflows in Wealth Management and robust unit trust inflows in Old Mutual Africa Regions.

Life annual premium equivalent sales for the third quarter were up 5.7% to R 10.41 billion from R 9.85 billion as a result of ‘good risk sales’ in Mass and Foundation Cluster across all distribution channels.

Old Mutual said it remains well-positioned to manage the impact of the increase in claims volumes arising from the two-pot retirement regime.

South African government allowed people to withdraw a portion of their retirement savings from September 1.

As at the end of October, Old Mutual has paid 93% of the 240,000 claims submitted, amounting to R 2.4 billion, with most of the claims paid in October.

Old Mutual also said it will start repurchasing its own shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from Thursday.

The company has received approval from the Prudential Authority to proceed with a share buyback of 81 million shares, amounting to R 1 billion.

It said the buyback will take place on the JSE only.

The group believes that it is trading at a discount to its intrinsic value and is of the view that a repurchase programme will deliver longer term incremental value to shareholders.

Shares in Old Mutual were down 0.1% to R 12.76 on Tuesday afternoon in Johannesburg, and they eased 0.2% to 55.70 pence in London.

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