PSG Konsult achieves credible results amidst restructuring

Willem Theron

PSG Konsult, the independent financial services provider, posted positive results for the financial year ending February 2013 amidst a comprehensive restructuring process and a new focus for its underlying business units.

To establish the company as a fully-fledged financial services group, the underlying business units were partitioned in three focus areas effective from 1 March, consisting of PSG Wealth, PSG Asset Management and PSG Insure to respectively reflect the company’s wealth management, asset management and short-term insurance divisions.

As part of this process, PSG Konsult will in future do business simply as “PSG.” This is to simplify branding, lever off the equity in the brand and align with the colloquial language in which the public already refer to the group only as PSG.

Recurring headline earnings increased by 15,3% to R174,4 million for the period under review, whilst the recurring headline earnings per share increased by 9,2% to 15,4 cents.

A final dividend of 7,3 cents was declared, to bring the total for the year to 10,8 cents (2012: 10,3 cents). Given the prospects for growth, the final dividend was kept the same as in the previous year.

The restructuring follows the joining of PSG Konsult by Francois Gouws as deputy CEO about a year ago. Gouws will take over the reins as CEO from Willem Theron on 1 July, while Theron will assume the role as chairman. The current chairman, Jaap Du Toit will stay on as non-executive director. Theron’s retirement as CEO coincides with PSG Konsult’s 15th anniversary, which was established on 1 July 1998.

Announcing the results, Theron said the results can be regarded as positive. “Growth in the group’s traditional financial advice business was maintained during the year. We believe that personal service supplemented by electronic platforms and trading will in future unlock more value. Further attention will be given to strengthen and enhance this process.

“Synergies are currently more evident in the asset management business, while the strategy to have a larger share in the value chain is bearing fruit.

“On the short-term insurance side our underwriting profits were somewhat under pressure, in line with the rest of the industry. With our new strategy we will focus strongly on commercial insurance, where we have identified a number of positive prospects. The group believe it is the right approach to follow,” Theron said.
Theron said that while positive market sentiment was experienced during the period under review, there are some concerns regarding the local economy, as was evident from the labour issues in the mining and agriculture sectors experienced last year.

While the American economy is showing signs of recovery, Europe is still presenting a problem. South Africa is part of the global economy and we are affected by it. It remains important for clients to diversify their assets with international exposure.