Old Mutual Ltd. on Tuesday reported a swing to a net loss for 2020, which was within its outlook range.
The African financial-services group booked a net loss of 5.10 billion rand ($346.3 million) for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with a ZAR9.39 billion net profit in the previous year. This was in line with the company’s guidance of a net loss of between ZAR4.32 billion and ZAR6.20 billion, provided in early March.
In addition, Old Mutual said headline earnings halved to ZAR5.09 billion from ZAR10.64 billion.
“2020 was one of the most challenging years our organization has ever faced. Our business remained well capitalised through the execution of decisive management actions and our liquidity position was strong, despite the material negative impact Covid-19 had on our earnings,” Chief Executive Iain Williamson said.
The board of the company declared a final dividend of ZAR0.35, down from ZAR0.75 a year earlier but in line with the dividend cover target range of 1.50-2.00 times adjusted headline earnings.
Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT
Source : MTV
