Outsurance, one of SA’s best corporate stories of the past two decades, is the country’s leading company when it comes to total shareholder returns (TSR) in the past five years, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) 2025 Value Creators report.
The report found that while Asia-Pacific and North America dominate the value creation rankings, and companies from SA and the broader “Rest of World” region are struggling to keep pace, Outsurance was one of the few bright spots.
The report found that Outsurance, worth R120bn, leads in SA with 38% five-year TSR. Other companies that have delivered superior returns include Harmony Gold and Gold Fields among the top local performers.
Pepkor, Discovery, FirstRand, Sanlam, Kumba, Naspers and MTN complete the top 10.
“The report identifies the top 10 SA companies in the sample by their five-year TSR performance. In first place is Outsurance, which achieved a five-year TSR of 38% and is featured among the ‘Highflyers’ for the Rest of World region,” reads the report.
“Other notable SA performers for the period 2020-2024 include Harmony Gold and Gold Fields with a 25% and 17% TSR, respectively — part of the wider traditional industrial sectors such as auto original equipment manufacturers, oil and gas, metals, machinery, mining, construction, and aerospace and defence — to have seen their TSR performance pick up,” it said.
“To thrive amid ongoing uncertainty, companies must return to the fundamentals of value creation: focusing on revenue growth, profit growth, valuation multiple, and cash payouts.”
Share price
Outsurance, like Discovery, was originally a start-up in the FirstRand stable. The company’s share price is more than 350% over the past five years, putting it firmly in the coveted top 40 listed companies category.
The group earlier this year reported improved earnings for the six months to end-December after fewer natural peril claims were incurred by Youi and Outsurance SA.
Strong organic premium growth and higher investment income also contributed to a 52.9% increase in normalised earnings to R2.16bn. Normalised earnings per share were up 53% to 138.6c, while a dividend of 88.6c per share was declared, up 44.8%.
Outsurance’s property and casualty business grew gross written premiums by 17.4%, supported by “satisfactory” organic growth across the operating segments.
Premium inflation continued to be affected by elevated claims cost inflation and the earn-through of the pricing actions taken in the prior year.
In rand terms, Youi’s translated premium growth rate was negatively affected by the strengthening of the rand against the Australian dollar.
The group expects premium inflation to normalise in line with the trend of general inflation over the next 12 months, but in the long run it expects premium inflation to be higher than CPI due to the effects of climate change, penetration of electric vehicles and increased technology penetration in new vehicle models.
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