Company news in brief

FirstRand ups dividendFirstRand has upped its annual dividend despite a modest rise in earnings that were marred by increased bad debts in South Africa. In the year to end-June, FNB South Africa&#039;s impairment charge rose almost by 52%, while at RMB it rocketed by more than 150% as interest rates at 15-year highs continued to bite.FirstRand also had to set aside R3 billion in an accounting provision to cover the potential impact of a UK probe into vehicle loans. South Africa’s largest banking group raised its annual dividend by 8% to 415 cents per ordinary share. Its headline earnings increased 4% to R38.05 billion.Basic and diluted normalised earnings per share rose 4%. The group’s return on equity (ROE) was 20.1%, well within its target range of 18% to 22%."Despite a tough operating environment, a standout feature of these results is the operational outperformance delivered by FirstRand’s portfolio in the second half of the year," FirstRand CEO Mary Vilakazi said yesterday. - Fin24Discovery flags earnings riseHealth-focused insurer Discovery flagged an up to 9% rise in headline earnings for its year to end June yesterday, reporting significant improvements at Discovery Bank as well as new business growth of almost a fifth.It felt more pressure in the UK, where a backlog in the National Health Service (NHS) helped push membership to 1 million, though a rise in claims and a lag in premium increases hit earnings by £30 million (R703 million).Headline earnings are expected to rise in a range of 4% to 9% from the roughly R3.3 billion it booked in 2023, it said in a trading update. Discovery SA is expected to show growth of between 13% and 18% in normalised profit from operations, with Discovery Bank lowering its operating loss by as much as 43%, having, "exceeded expectations, with excellent progress across all metrics."Discovery Insure delivered a strong recovery in the second half of the reporting year, as prior period management actions took effect it said, with the group previously moving to cut costs and implement selective pricing changes, as well as having moved to mitigate risks stemming from load shedding and increased vehicle theft. Normalised profit from operations in its personal lines business is expected to rise more than 100%. - Fin24

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