FirstRand’s Vilakazi cleans up after R17bn UK hit

In this episode, FirstRand CEO Mary Vilakazi unpacks results that look worse than they are. Reported earnings fell 5% after an R11.4 billion provision for the UK motor finance scandal, but strip that out and normalised earnings from continuing operations grew 13%, with return on equity at 24%. The UK business is being sold, and FirstRand is placing its next big bet on Optasia, a fintech platform targeting the unbanked across Africa. Andrew Dunn of DNI tells one of South Africa’s most unexpected entrepreneurial stories. Watching bread trucks return idle by midmorning at Premier Foods, he noticed that every outlet buying bread was also selling airtime and SIM cards with no efficient way to restock. That single observation became the foundation for a business now spanning connectivity, devices, eSIMs and fintech, touching millions of South Africans in the informal economy. Chantal Marx of FNB Wealth and Investments on a bumper week of financial services results, why South African insurers and banks keep outperforming a moribund economy, and what Anton Rupert Jr’s elevation at Richemont really signals. And News24 Business editor Helena Wasserman discusses GDP shrinking by 0.2% in the second quarter, the Gauteng office market at 18% vacancy, and why Hyde Park Corner is somehow the best-performing retail asset in the country. This podcast is sponsored by Capitec. To catch every episode, click the follow and subscribe buttons on News24’s Spotify, Apple, and YouTube podcast channels, or catch up on past episodes here. Editions drop on Thursdays at 17:00.