Capitec Bank said its first-half profit and interim dividend reached new highs, according to a statement released on Wednesday 30 September. Headline earnings, profit per share stripped of one-off items, climbed 19% to R9.5 billion for the six months to 31 August (R8.0 billion a year earlier), and the interim dividend rose 19% to 3,110 cents, or R31.10, per share (2,620 cents a year earlier).
The lift came from both sides of the income statement. Net non-interest income, which includes fees and commission, rose 21% to R16.1 billion and now makes up 70% of income from operations after credit impairments, up from 65%. Net interest income rose 7% to R12.7 billion, helped by 21% growth in loan disbursements. The group’s return on ordinary shareholders’ equity, the profit generated for each rand of shareholders’ equity, stayed at 31%, and its cost-to-income ratio improved to 36% from 40%.
Capitec’s business banking unit, which started in 2022 to serve small and medium-sized enterprises, reported a 52% increase in headline earnings, to R609 million from R402 million. The unit’s clients rose 123% to 686,000, according to the results commentary, and it has reduced fees and point-of-sale commission rates to attract customers. It makes up about 6% of group earnings, and chief executive Graham Lee told Bloomberg the unit “really should grow to be about 30% long term”.
Lee, who took the role in July 2025, is steering the bank through intensifying competition from rivals such as Nedbank Group and the new entrant OM Bank, both seeking to tap the low-income market.
Credit impairment, the amount set aside for loans that may not be repaid, rose 21% to R5.75 billion. Bloomberg reported that the bank slowed loan growth and raised provisions for expected credit losses by 7% to R29.1 billion, as the war in the Middle East lifts energy costs and inflation. “We deliberately raised our forward-looking macroeconomic provisions early, not because of the experience that we are having now but looking ahead to 12 and 18 months, where we think the macro is going to be tougher,” Lee said. The gross loan book at the personal banking unit passed R100 billion for the first time, but Lee said it will grow more slowly than previously guided.
Active clients grew 7% to 26.6 million, of whom 10.4 million are fully banked, an 11% increase. About 16.5 million clients used the Capitec app in the last month, up 18%. Insurance headline earnings rose 22% to R2.5 billion, and the bank said it kept fees unchanged for a second year running.
On the market, Capitec’s shares retreated 1.2% by 11:27am in Johannesburg on the day of the results, paring their gain for the year to 5.2%. That still outpaces the 1.9% advance in the FTSE/JSE Africa Bank Index over the period, according to Bloomberg.
The dividend is payable on Monday 26 October 2026. The last day to trade cum dividend is Tuesday 20 October, shares trade ex-dividend from Wednesday 21 October, and the record date is Friday 23 October.
Michiel le Roux founded Capitec, which was spun out of PSG Group in March 2001 before listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in February 2002. Since then the bank has expanded to more than 26.6 million personal and business clients as at 31 August, which makes it South Africa’s biggest lender by customer numbers.
For SME owners, the practical points are that the business-banking arm is growing quickly with lower fees, and that the bank itself says it is setting aside more for expected credit losses and growing its loan book more slowly.
Source: Bloomberg, via Moneyweb; Capitec’s results commentary as published by Ghost Mail
