Financial services and technology group Net1 UEPS says it has narrowed its headline loss for the third quarter to end-March, saying it saw less pressure from Covid-19 than it did during early 2020.
Net1 has a primary listing on the US Nasdaq and a secondary listing on the JSE. However, its focus is on SA where it uses its banking and payment technology to provide low-cost financial services to consumers and small businesses.
The group, which also provides transaction processing services, including being a payment processor and bill payment platform, said on Friday with winter months approaching in SA there is still concern about a third wave, particularly as there have been several delays in the vaccination programme.
Revenue fell 17% year on year to $28.8m (R409m) in the quarter to end-March, amid lower prepaid airtime and hardware sales, as well as lower account fee revenue.
Net1 said the pandemic did not affect the group as severely as it did during early 2020, but SA had moved back to level 3 restrictions in December, which remained in place until the end of February.
The group headline loss narrowed by about two thirds to $5.87m for the quarter. In its 2020 third quarter, Net1 was unable to charge certain cash withdrawal fees to customers as a result of the lockdown during the last few days of March of that year.
“We have made a lot of operational progress over the past quarter in exiting our loss-making European operations and preparing the SA operations for significant account growth,” said Net1 interim CEO Alex Smith.
“We are making progress in our mission of driving financial inclusion for the underserved market having recently hired a new dynamic, highly accomplished and experienced CEO of Net1 Southern Africa, Lincoln Mali, who is well respected and experienced in the SA financial services and banking industry,” said Smith.
During the period the group had announced the sale of its remaining stake in Liechtenstein-based Bank Frick for $30m, which forms part of a new strategy announced in September 2020 of focusing on its core competencies in SA.
The firm previously had been diversifying into new geographies as it sought other revenue streams after the loss of a multibillion-rand contract to distribute social grants in SA.
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