Clientele's earnings up 15% for the year

This meant diluted headline earnings per share were also up by 15% - from 77.76c to 89.57c.

Headline earnings per share from continuing operations‚ after adjusting for Secondary Tax on Companies (STC) last year to ensure comparability‚ increased by 5% from 85.16c per share to 89.62c per share.

Clientele said that insurance premium revenue had been tempered by the conscious reining in of production in the first half of the year‚ which had been offset‚ to some extent‚ by the improvement in withdrawal experience.

The second half of the year had experienced a meaningful increase in production volumes‚ together with a sustained improvement in the quality of sales in the telesales arena‚ which was expected to improve insurance premium revenue next year.

Insurance premium revenue for the year was up by 2% from R1.195bn to R1.225bn. Other income of R168.8m‚ which mainly comprised annuity fees from Clientele Life's Independent Field Advertisers (IFAs)‚ was 3% up on last year's figure of R164.2 million.

Recurring embedded value earnings increased from R602.4m to R635.9m‚ implying a recurring return on embedded value of 20.9%.

The dividend increased by 10% from 67c to 74c.