Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us this morning for Santam's interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026. I'm Tava Madzinga and I'm joined by our CFO, Wikus Olivier, and Thabiso Rulashe, the Head of Strategy and Investor Relations.

This first half was defined by disciplined underwriting in a genuinely more challenging environment: an exceptional weather season, a softening global rate cycle, and a South African consumer that is certainly under real strain. Despite all of that, we've delivered what we believe to be a resilient, high-quality result, and made decisive strategic progress, and we will take you through this this morning.

This morning, I'll focus my remarks on the high-level strategic and operational narrative behind the numbers, and then Wikus will then walk us through the detailed financial results. I'll then return for the outlook for the rest of the year, and then we'll be happy to take your questions.

For this morning, we'd like to take away these key six messages. Firstly, our underwriting margin came in well above the midpoint of our target range, even after absorbing significant weather and large losses.

That is discipline showing up in the numbers and resilience where it counts. We have a genuine step-up change internationally: we successfully launched Santam Syndicate 1918, accelerating our diversification and our international play.

Direct is keeping up its momentum: MiWay and Santam Direct delivered double-digit growth, and the launch of Santam Cashback further strengthens our multi-channel proposition. We have strong earnings growth supported by the recovery in investment return on capital and another strong showing from our ART businesses.

Through and through, we stayed disciplined through the cycle: we're maintaining underwriting and pricing discipline as global rates continue to soften, we've sharpened our focus on operational efficiency, and we're proud that we've returned over R12 billion to the economy through claims settlement. The operation platform remains solid: the strength of our client and intermediary relationships and our superior distribution footprint set us up well for the rest of the year.

All in all, a fairly resilient first half of the year underpinned by a very disciplined underwriting. Turning to the operating environment.

The global picture has several moving parts at this point in time. Geopolitical risk spiked; the geopolitical risk index reached the 300s again this year, pretty much on par with some of the worst readings that we've seen over the last decade.

Energy prices stayed elevated and volatile; we saw Brent peaking over $100 in March before settling into the mid-80s. Global growth is slowing while inflation re-accelerates, and that uncomfortable mix with projected growth easing towards 3% remains an area of concern.

What is important for us is really the fourth quadrant, and that's the one to hold on to: reinsurance and commercial rates continue to soften. Property catastrophe reinsurance pricing has swung from the highs of 37% at its 2023 peak down to 25% this June.

A softer rate cycle is a real headwind to top-line growth, and it's precisely why underwriting discipline matters more now than ever. Closer to home, the pressure on our customers is real.

Fuel and transport costs surged; diesel inflation is over 50% year-on-year, and petrol above 30%. Inflation is re-accelerating, and we're seeing the re-emergence of a cost-of-living crisis, with more than 7 in 10 South Africans telling us they feel financial stress, and around half are spending more than 40% of their income servicing debt.

Then there is climate: the insured weather losses have structurally stepped up globally and across the world. Our own gross weather-related catastrophe experience has also structurally stepped up over the past decade, and this year is certainly no exception, and this becomes part of our new normal.

It is one of the most important lenses of how we think about underwriting, how we price, reserve, reinsure, and increasingly improve our risk management. Now let's turn to how our business responded, our operating highlights.

Our business has responded well to the operating environment. For the first half of the year, the GWP is up 10% in line with last year; net earned premium is up 6%, deliberately restrained given the soft cycle and allowing for the lower specialist volumes.

We have an underwriting margin of 8.1%, comfortably inside our 5% to 10% target range against an exceptional cat-benign year in 2025 of 11.3%. The ART businesses' earnings are up to 466 million rand, net income at 2.2 billion, and a return on capital of 27%, again ahead of our 24% hurdle.

Economic capital coverage is at 167%, above the top end of the range, and we have an interim dividend of 6 rand 50 cents, up about 10%. The direct proportion is 23% of GWP, and international is also contributing 23%, and a policy count of 3.5 million.

We have weather events coming in in the first half of the year in February and in May; strong softening rate cycle; a softer specialist new business on one side; and on the other, a very favorable attritional loss ratio, the recovery in investment return on capital, the ART business is doing well, double-digit direct growth, and what we see is the first-time contribution from Syndicate 1918. All of this has shaped our result.

In short, we're largely on target, a high-quality and resilient result. Now let's talk about how all of this fits into our broader strategy.

Everything we do sits under our FutureFit 2030 strategy, and our purpose is simple: to safeguard what is important to our clients. Our strategic intent is to be the leading South African insurer driven by data with a client at the center of everything that we do.

We're executing across our three growth vectors: strengthening our leadership in South Africa through a multi-channel model scaling direct and our tied agency businesses; driving diversification through our international expansion using Allianz and the Lloyd's syndicate; scaling our ecosystems and partnerships with MTN, MultiChoice, and cross-sell across the Sanlam Group. Underpinning all of it is unlocking data and AI capabilities, and our desire to continue to be a good corporate citizen.

This half of the year has moved us forward across every single one of those vectors. Let me take the time to also make the quality point fairly concrete.

We've maintained rate adequacy through the softening cycle, pricing for risk and not for volume. We've steered the portfolio actively, held the margin within our 5% to 10% range despite the weather normalization that we've seen in the first half of the year, and we've reinforced reserve strength, and again all backed by a very robust catastrophe reinsurance program.

Our geocoding, which is turning every address into very precise coordinates, is giving us property-level accuracy on every risk: accumulation for controlling of our flood exposure, fire and storms; live flood monitoring with our systems; and sharper claims management across the board. The proof is certainly coming through in the numbers, and geocoding and our underwriting actions delivered approximately 200 million rand in weather savings in the first half of the year, and that's 13% of the net cat losses in the first half of the year, and this is supporting the resilience and the margins through the cycle.

Turning to MiWay. Direct is a clear standout.

MiWay has sustained double-digit GWP growth and is underpinned by a clear step-up in policy count. You can see it inflect from the start of 2025 as our strategic initiatives have scaled.

The key message is the shift in mix: our growth is broadening from rate-led growth to volume-led growth, and we find that volume-led growth is more durable and points to share gains, and we're achieving it even as our customers stay under pressure. Now turning to the flagship.

In its first six months, Santam Syndicate 1918, the only African-headquartered participant in the market, has concluded 1.3 billion rand of expected new incremental premium, accelerating our international diversification and earnings growth. The strategic rationale remains compelling: diversified growth beyond South Africa, the Lloyd's advantage of global licenses across 200+ territories on one capital-efficient platform, a gateway for African and emerging-market specialty risk into global markets, and we believe that it is value-accretive with Lloyd's platforms trading around twice book value.

We've effectively launched on time and on plan and started writing open-market property from the 1st of April. Consortium execution remains underway, and our NAIC approval is also unlocking US business from day one.

We have an approved stamp capacity of £375 million, with more than £150 million earmarked for new incremental business. We have a strengthened leadership team including a new CEO, and 161 million rand of GWP already recognized against that 1.3 billion expected by 30 June.

It is funded efficiently through Santam and through letters of credit, and the initial expected loss simply reflects the revenue recognition profile of a maiden underwriting year. The focus remains for us on building a very disciplined, quality-led platform.

We expect the syndicate to become profitable in the second half of 2027. Turning to our long-term targets to 2030.

These are the long-term targets that we hold ourselves to to the year 2030. On the financial side: GWP growth of CPI plus GDP of 1% to 2%; a net underwriting margin in the range of 5% to 10%; international and direct GWP targeting to be above 30%; and a return on capital above 24%.

Dividend growth remains based on NEP growth, and the capital coverage in the range of 100% to 165%. On the non-financial side: we target policy count above 4 million, an NPS above 60, employee engagement above 75%, and an SA market share above 24%, while maintaining our BBBEE Level 1 score and remaining in the top 30 of the JSE Responsible Investment Index.

In this half of the year, our metrics sit squarely within these ranges. With that, let me now hand over to our CFO, Wikus Olivier, who will take you through the financial results and capital management in a lot more detail.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining me for the results section of our presentation. Overall, the group delivered a strong financial performance in the first half of 2026, meeting or exceeding the long-term targets for all of our key financial performance indicators.

This was achieved despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, investment market volatility, and significant weather-related claims during the period. At the top-line level, growth in gross written premium of 10% was above our long-term target of nominal GDP plus 1% to 2%, with timing differences reducing this to 6% at the net earned premium level.

Claims activity increased as anticipated, in particular weather-related catastrophes, with total weather and other large losses of 1.5 billion compared to only 144 million in the prior period. Despite these losses, we achieved an underwriting margin of 8.1%, well above the midpoint of our 5% to 10% target range.

This is testimony to the benefits of our underwriting discipline, proactive risk management, and focus on cost efficiencies. Investment return on our insurance funds benefited from strong investment market returns towards the end of June, a sharp turnaround from the low points during the period.

Our asset managers also performed very well, exceeding their benchmarks for the period. This contributed to a float return of 2.9% of net earned premiums compared to 2.6% in the prior period.

The strong operational performance contributed to an annualized return on capital of 27%, which is in excess of our 24% target. It was lower than 2025, with the prior period benefiting from an absence of large claims.

Now turning to our top-line performance. Gross written premiums increased by 10%, which exceeded the target for the period.

All businesses contributed double-digit growth, apart from Broker and Client Solutions. Broker and Client Solutions contributed solid growth despite a moderation in premium rate increases and increased competition in outsourced business in particular.

The Santam Cashback offering was rolled out on the 1st of July this year, which is expected to support growth going forward. MiWay's inbound and outbound strategies supported strong growth of 13% in its gross written premiums.

The MiCashback offering has now been fully rolled out to all of its personal lines clients. This initiative resulted in an increase in average premium shortly after its launch, with the benefits from a claims and persistency experience perspective now also starting to come through.

Partner Solutions in turn also grew strongly, benefiting from the base effect of the MultiChoice transaction which we concluded in May 2025. Specialist Solutions continued to experience the effects of a softer rating environment in specialist lines of business, which is in line with the global experience.

Its new business performance, however, provided relief, with a welcome return to growth in its GWP contribution. We remain focused on profitability and meeting our return on capital target, even if it means softer top-line growth in the short term.

Syndicate 1918, which launched on the 1st of January 2026, is performing well, and we expect to exceed our new business plan for the 2026 year of underwriting, with Lloyd's recently approving an increase in our underwriting capacity. As Tava also mentioned, the syndicate concluded new business with an expected gross written premium of 1.3 billion in the first half of the year.

However, the nature of the business written to date results in a delayed recognition of this premiums, with 461 million of the 1.3 billion concluded business recognized by the end of June. Santam Re also achieved double-digit growth on the back of increased partnership business.

Net earned premiums, however, grew by only 6%, with a lower level of growth compared to GWP relating to timing differences in the recognition of the syndicate, Specialist Solutions, and Santam Re partnership business as earned premiums. Only 87 million of the syndicate's 461 million of GWP was recognized as earned premium by the end of June.

We expect that the net earned premium growth will accelerate over the remainder of the year as the timing differences partially unwind. From a line of business perspective, the change in mix of business at Santam Re from individual treaties to large partnership business over the past two years continue to impact growth from a line of business perspective, impacting on motor, engineering, and liability business in particular.

These lines of business performed very well excluding the impact of the change in mix at Santam Re. Overall growth was also augmented by the first-time contribution from the syndicate and the base effect of the MultiChoice transaction, which comes through in particular at the property line of business.

Just turning to our business volumes from a geographical perspective, non-South African business grew by 25%, with the syndicate accelerating the international diversification of the group. Non-SA business now accounts for 23% of overall GWP, well under way to meet our 30% target.

From a regional perspective, South African business increased by 6.4%, with the double-digit growth at direct and partnership businesses partly offset by single-digit growth in the traditional intermediated business and at Specialist Solutions. Intermediated business reflects the impact of a moderation in premium rate increases and the increased competition in outsourced business, as I indicated earlier.

The maiden contribution from the syndicate, together with a very strong growth in Namibia and international treaty business, supported the overall 10% growth in GWP. Reinsurance is a substantial cost to the group, with reinsurance earned premium amounting to 15.2% of gross earned premium.

It reduced by some 1.1% since the 2025 full year, reflecting lower reinsurance spend at Specialist Solutions and Santam Re. No changes were, however, made to the group's major reinsurance programs.

Now turning to earnings. Net income increased by 7%, supported by a significant increase in investment return earned on capital and also strong earnings growth at the ART businesses.

The net insurance result declined by 17%, which I will unpack in a later slide. Investment return on capital increased from 35 million rand in 2025 to more than 700 million in 2026.

This is attributable to lower foreign currency translation losses and the revaluation of our economic interest in Shriram General Insurance in India. We held surplus foreign investments during 2025 in anticipation of the launch of the syndicate.

The foreign currency translation differences on this capital caused by a stronger rand exchange rate were recognized in earnings in the prior period. With the launch of the syndicate this year and its classification as a foreign operation in terms of IFRS, the foreign currency translation differences on these assets are recognized directly in equity from 2026.

Following the acquisition of a majority stake in Shriram General Insurance by the Sanlam Group, the minority and liquidity discounts embedded in the valuation were reduced, which resulted in a one-off 590 million positive revaluation gain in respect of our stake. The overall valuation increased by 510 million, with the valuation excluding the one-off impact negatively impacted by the strengthening of the rand against the rupee.

The net insurance result decreased by 17%, which is a combination of a 24% decline in the underwriting result and a 16% increase in the return on insurance funds. Underwriting margin of 8.1% was impacted by the weather-related and other large losses of 1.5 billion, compared to a very small number of 144 million in the comparative period, which was characterized by a particularly benign claims environment.

A reduction in our reserving confidence level from the 91st to the 87th percentile had a positive earnings impact of 325 million rand. The 2026 margin also includes a maiden underwriting loss of 230 million from the syndicate.

This loss is fully attributable to the delayed revenue recognition profile, with the syndicate expected to contribute a underwriting profit on a year of account basis. The syndicate is therefore not running an expense J-curve.

Excluding these items, an underwriting margin of 15.7% was achieved, reflecting the underlying rating strength following the underwriting actions that we implemented over the past few years. Good margins were achieved across all insurance classes, with property also recording a profit despite the adverse claims experience.

Just looking at acquisition costs, the group's total acquisition cost ratio increased by 0.8%. The increase in commission ratios largely attributable to a change in the mix of business between personal lines, commercial lines, and reinsurance, as well as the impact of the syndicate.

The management expense ratio increased from 18.8% in 2025 to 19.3% in the first half of 2026. The syndicate contributed 1.2% to the increase, with diligent expense management achieving a 0.7% decline in the like-for-like expense ratio to 18.1%.

This slide shows the history of the group's underwriting performance over the past couple of years, with a strong performance since 2023. The objective is to continue growing in higher-margin lines of business to sustainably move the underwriting margin towards the upper end of our target range.

The ART businesses continued their track record of strong performance. Administration fee income declined slightly from a high base in 2025, with the investment margin increasing by 3%, supported by good investment returns earned on float portfolios.

Underwriting income declined from a very high base in 2025, similar to the trends in the conventional business. Just turning to capital management.

Return on capital: annualized return on capital of 27% was lower than in 2025 due to the normalization in the claims experience, as I highlighted earlier. We remained above the 24% target, with a very healthy mix of insurance and investment return on capital.

The group and all of its core subsidiaries remain well capitalized, with the group solvency ratio in excess of the upper end of our target range. This enabled the board to approve a 10.2% increase in the interim dividend to 650 cents per share.

This represents meaningful cash flow value creation for our shareholders. We will remain well within our target range following the dividend declaration and also allowing for the increased capital requirement for the syndicate's 2027 business plan.

I will now hand back to Tava for some closing remarks.

Thank you, Wikus, and let me bring this all together. What you've heard this morning is a business that is delivering quality earnings through the cycle and building a durable, diversified level of growth.

We have a resilient in-target result, with an 8.1% underwriting margin and a 27% return on capital through an exceptional catastrophe season. A structural quality advantage is disciplined underwriting and geocoding that cut 200 million of losses and reduced volatility.

We have broadening and more durable growth: MiWay shifting from rate-led to volume-led growth, and direct now sitting at 23% of GWP. A genuine international step-up in our international business: Syndicate 1918 is on plan with 1.3 billion of premium and a clear path to hard-currency earnings by 2030.

Discipline and returns to shareholders: a 10.2% increase in the interim dividend and on a strong capital base. Turning to sustainability.

Sustainability is core to how we continue to create value. On society and nature, we remain a constituent of the FTSE4Good and FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Top 30 indices.

Our geocoding now actively supports flood monitoring and claims response, alongside our quick reaction force and climate-smart agriculture work. On community resilience, we're closing the protection gap where it matters most, through over 12 billion paid in gross claims, a strategic partnership with the South African Weather Service on disaster preparedness, and support for 110 municipalities through our Partnerships for Risk and Resilience, benefiting over 24 million people, with 410 million rand channeled into resilient investments.

On culture and customer, our NPS is 64 across all channels, employee engagement is 86%, and we launched the Santam Cashback, and Santam was ranked 30th on the 2026 Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable South African Brands list. We believe that our contribution to sustainability is our license to operate.

Now looking forward. Our priority is a deliberate shift towards margin expansion, profitable growth, and cost discipline.

We will maintain underwriting and pricing discipline through the soft cycle, continue scaling our direct capability, scaling international diversification through Santam 1918 and the Indian growth opportunity. We continue to sharpen cost efficiency to protect the margin and to fund our strategic investments.

We will also strengthen our distribution partnerships and deliver market-leading broking enablement. We continue to accelerate our investment in AI and data, and while we strengthen our AI governance.

We stay focused on delivering for our clients and our customers, and continue to invest in resilience-building initiatives to close the protection gap and to strengthen disaster resilience. Before we take questions, let us bring this back to where it matters the most: our long-term targets and what this half tells you about our ability to deliver on them.

I'd ask you to look past any single number and to see the pattern. On growth, our gross written premiums have tracked ahead of our target at around 10%.

On profitability, our underwriting margin sits within our 5% to 10% target range at 8.1% after absorbing an exceptional weather season. On returns, our returns on capital have stayed above our 24% hurdle throughout the cycle.

Our diversification continues to climb steadily towards our 30% ambition for 2030, now currently at 23%. Our dividend record speaks for itself: a story of growth and value creation, with the interim dividend up against this period.

Returns and margins have normalized from last year's exceptional highs. We are, however, firmly delivering on quality with discipline and consistency throughout this cycle.

Consistency really is the point: it's what it takes to make these 2030 targets not just aspirational, but credible. The message I'd leave with you on this today is that the first half you've heard about today is not an exception, it's how we're delivering.

All of our long-term targets are trending in the right way, our discipline is holding through a very tough environment, and we are firmly on track with our FutureFit 2030 strategy, with the growth engines of direct and international diversification, and the balance sheet strength to compound value for shareholders. Thank you very much.

I'll now hand over to Thabiso, our Head of Strategy and Investor Relations, to open the floor for your questions.

Thank you, Tava and Wikus. Now getting to questions, I've got one question from Baron Commer, JPMorgan: "Given the strong growth in the direct channel, how much further market share do you think you can capture, and what investments are needed to sustain this?"

Maybe Tava, do you want to take that?

Thanks, Thabiso, and good morning, Baron. I think market share certainly is an important metric, it talks to scale.

I think in a very tough macroeconomic environment, we've talked a lot about disciplined underwriting, and the quality of the business we're bringing through in MiWay has largely been volume-led and not rate-led. I think for us, we will continue to invest in MiWay.

We've launched the MiWay Cashback, which we believe is very attractive to customers, and you're seeing the policy unit growth in a very tough environment, which says customers and clients are finding the MiWay proposition very, very attractive. That is what is leading to the gains that we are seeing in MiWay.

I think it's important caution that it is a very difficult macro environment, and we are very cognizant of the fact that our customers remain under pressure. We do believe that the overarching proposition that we're putting forward in MiWay is above some of the competitors that we see in the direct space, and that's what's leading to the growth that you're seeing in MiWay.

Now thanks, Tava. I'll stay on the growth questions and theme, from Matthew Pouncett, Laurium Capital: "GWP target to 2030 is a nominal GDP plus 1% to 2%.

Surely the move into Lloyd's, which essentially divorces your growth from South Africa GDP, should suggest a higher GWP target growth relative to GDP?"

I think it's a fair ask given the shift that we're seeing in the mix of our business. I think it's important to say that the South African component still remains our dominant market at more than 70% of our business.

I think as we progress into what we're seeing as a very soft cycle across the board, both internationally and in our domestic market, I think we do caution around the expectation for top-line growth. Again, the key message is around disciplined underwriting, maintaining the underwriting margin in that 5% to 10% range, with that 24% return on capital underpinned.

That's really where our focus is. I think, again, a very soft cycle, and so top-line growth for us, we do expect it to be muted.

I think you're seeing the combination of the international business and the pressure still coming through on the South African business. The blend of those two halves is what's giving us the overarching group for the business.

Again, I think it will be premature, I think, for us to be talking about revising our growth when the bulk of our business is still predominantly based here in South Africa. Wikus, I don't know if you want to add anything to that?

No, I think you covered it well, Tava. I think as we progress on our international strategy, of course we always revisit our targets, similar to our target for the proportion of GWP that we expect to come from outside of South Africa, which we did increase to 30% after the launch of the syndicate.

It is something that we'll revisit on a continuous basis over time.

Wikus, I'll stay with you. The next question is from Warwick Bam, RMB Morgan Stanley: "How should we think about the timing difference between GWP and NEP as we get into the full year '26?"

Thanks for the question. I think there's two impacts playing through.

I think first of all from a GWP perspective, as we indicated, we've already concluded business where we expect GWP of 1.3 billion, but that effectively comes through over a 12-month period. After recognition of the GWP, it takes another 12 months for it to play through on a net earned premium basis.

Even the 1.3 billion, although we expect most of that to come through this year, from a net earned premium perspective, a sizeable portion will only be recognized in 2027. That's what you see playing out in our operating loss, where you've got a significant delay in earned premium recognition, but your cost base, especially all of the Lloyd's-related costs you incur based on effectively your GWP in your business plan.

All of that comes through in the current year, but related revenue is significantly delayed.

What I'll just add to that, Thabiso, is that when you look at particularly the syndicate business on an underwriting year basis, it is our expectation that the syndicate is profitable immediately on an underwriting year basis. Wikus has explained the challenge with the recognition of premium, but I think the ultimate underwriting quality of the business that we're bringing through makes the syndicate profitable on an underwriting basis.

I think fundamentally that's the number that we're targeting, and I think you will see that starting to come through in the years to come.

Now thanks, Tava. Wikus, I'm going to come back to you as well on this question from Warwick Bam again: "Was there anything unusual about the attritional claims experience or weather in the first half of '26 which we should consider before extrapolating this performance when excluding cat losses?"

I think if you look from an attritional claims experience, we saw a continuation of the favorable experience. A large part of that is sustainable in our view, which is based on all of the underwriting actions that we've put through over the last number of years.

I mentioned we're very much focused on diligent expense management; you see the benefit of that coming through in the management expense ratio. From a claims perspective, we're working on extracting value across the whole value chain, and all of those are actions that's unique to Santam and not a general market trend, it should be sustainable over time.

From the weather-related cat perspective, the experience in the first half of the year is more than what we normally would expect and what we normally would allow for from a budgeting perspective. Now

thanks. Michael Christelis from UBS, question is for you as well, maybe Tava you can come through as well: "What underwriting margin do you expect to make in Santam Re through the cycle, relative to the losses reported this period?"

I think if you look at the nature of the business that we write within Santam Re, it is low-margin business in nature, and you make most of your return on capital from the float returns, which is very much similar to the SGI model in India, actually. We normally do expect at least a low single-digit margin from Santam Re, but not much more than kind of the bottom end of our target range.

Most periods will actually be a little bit lower than that. What we've experienced in the first half of this year was actually run-off claims from business canceled in prior periods, and that's why we saw the underwriting loss coming through.

If you strip out the canceled business, the remainder of the book actually delivered positive underwriting margins and meeting the return on capital hurdle.

Warwick Bam again, now this question is around how are we thinking around reinsurance structures, now that we've experienced severe cat events without dropping below the midpoint of our target range?

Thank you, Warwick. You'll remember, I think in 2023, we made a structural change to our reinsurance arrangements where we increased our retention, and that was largely driven by the pricing we were seeing in the market around just the steep reinsurance rates at that particular time.

That was one critical factor. The other critical factor is that reinsurers perceive or view the limit of a billion or sub-a-billion as being a working layer, and so you find that the reinsurance cost there was effectively rand swapping, and we weren't getting much benefit from the reinsurance arrangements.

With the increase in the retention and all the underwriting changes that we've made within our business, we are fairly comfortable with the reinsurance arrangements that we have in place. I think the sum result of an 8.1% margin while absorbing 1.5 billion in large weather and cat and fire losses is testament that the aggregate structure that we have between our own internal view of how we reserve for large losses and the combination of the reinsurance arrangements above a billion, the sum total of the reinsurance program is working well for us as a group.

We do fundamentally believe that the decision has been reinforced by the result that you're seeing for the first half of the year. I think it's the first year where the business has been fundamentally tested in a cat-heavy first half of the year, whereas last year I think we had a benign cat environment.

This is a year where we've seen cats coming through very strong. Ironically, seems to be raining heavily only in South Africa, whereas the rest of the world is cat-benign.

We're quite pleased that the business has shown resilience, that the cat programs and the structures we've put in place are working well to protect the business. Now

thanks, Tava. I'm going to group the number of questions that have come through.

We've got two questions around what should we expect from the forecast super El Niño for the remainder of the year. Those two questions come, one question from Michael and the other one from Marius.

Maybe just to expand around the expectation of the super El Niño, what has been our experience previously when we've had El Niño before?

I think we have cautioned that weather does remain a critical factor in terms of the outlook for the second half of the year. Typically we expect the hail in the last quarter of the year.

What we're finding with the super El Niño coming through is that we expect the environment to be hotter and drier into the second half of the year. I think with that, there is the confluence again with the pressure that the economy is currently under.

Now you have another factor on top of what's already a very difficult macro environment. From our perspective, we do expect that because the environment is hotter and drier, I think there is the caution and the risk around large fires into the second half of the year.

There is also the caution around the impact on the agricultural sector of the economy, and then the knock-on effect on our agriculture insurance portfolio. We remain very cautious in our expectation for the second half of the year.

I think this is not completely unexpected. I think we have lived through dry weather historically.

I do think the combination of our risk management or prevention work that we do with the municipalities, with the weather services, the quick reaction helicopters that you see flying to mitigate fires, I think the combination of that together with our much more stringent underwriting and geocoding, I think positions us to move into this phase of the super El Niño effectively from a very strong position of strength. Now

thanks, Tava. Maybe before I talk strategy, Wikus, let's talk some finance numbers.

Jared Houston from AWC is asking: "Can you explain the higher tax rate in this period?"

Yes, I think there are two factors in the tax rate. The one is a one-off prior-year adjustment that we made of just short of 100 million rand.

Then the other dynamic that's playing out is the difference in the effective tax rate between South Africa and the UK, with a lower tax rate in the UK. The operating losses incurred by the syndicate actually provides a lower level of tax relief, whereas the rest of our operations are profitable.

Those two factors increased the effective tax rate during this period.

Okay. Maybe Wikus, let's stay with the SGI question.

Also Janine Pain from Argon Asset Management: "Can you please explain the re-evaluation of SGI? What drove this re-evaluation?"

If you look at our valuation methodology for unlisted investments, which we align with market practice, we do DCF, discounted cash flow valuations, and then we apply on that DCF value discounts for minorities as well as liquidity. Whenever you've got a minority investment, we do apply significant minority and liquidity discounts in valuation.

Now that Sanlam has acquired a majority stake in SGI, we could remove a sizeable portion of the minority and liquidity discounts, which had this one-off lift in valuation. The methodology is aligned with what we see in the market as well, that's applied in general to corporate action valuations.

I'll pause at this very moment and go to Chorus Call and see if we have any questions. Operator?

Hi, good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Excellent. Thank you.

Few questions and a request. Maybe let me start with the request, if it's possible for you maybe in future to separate in your segmentals the Syndicate 1918 numbers, just given the different accounting, different risks, different currencies, different business model, and it just does distort numbers for the rest of the business, and obviously will increasingly do so.

Maybe you can comment on whether there would be sensitivities to separating that. Then first question really: the ART book grew earnings 14%, maybe just a quick discussion around the drivers there that was unexpected for me given we didn't see that volume growth there, we didn't see as strong a bond market.

I guess related to that as well second question, the float income grew 16% in what was a weaker bond market in the period. You've now given us the float size, which suggests that it's reduced fairly meaningfully since year-end.

Maybe just a sense of how to—

Maybe Francois, you can hold there, and maybe we can respond to that question before you can ask your next question.

Wikus? Thanks.

On the first one, morning Francois. On the syndicate disclosure, I'm not sure whether you've had time to look at our financial review that we published this morning, we do have separate disclosure of syndicate numbers in there to separate it from the other international.

Maybe have a look at that, and then if there's a request for further information, we can discuss that. On the ART businesses, you will note that most of the growth came through on investment return on capital line where they had a very strong period, which is not necessarily sustainable into the future.

On their operating lines, last year we did comment that it's a very high base. I think especially within the Centriq business where the old in-force Capitec book is still on the Centriq license, it hasn't been transferred yet, but of course with all the new business being written on the Capitec license, you do see a run-off in the size of the in-force book, which put pressure on their year-on-year fee income growth.

Then specifically also on underwriting result, you'll see that is down on last year, as I mentioned during the presentation, with the trends they're effectively reflecting what we've seen on the conventional side as well.

Thanks, Wikus. Francois, please go ahead with your next question.

Thank you. The float size reduced, and bond markets been not as strong as in the base period.

Maybe give a bit more color to that 16% increase in the float returns, maybe help me model that a bit better going forward as well.

I think what you see coming through is our philosophy is to match our float portfolios from a duration perspective, it is effectively very shorter-dated instruments that we've got within the float portfolio. At the end of March, you would recall when we came out with our operational update, the float returns were much lower.

We did see a recovery in the portfolios towards the end of June. Then our asset managers actually outperformed benchmarks by quite a margin, which was also a contributing factor to that increase in the float returns.

Thank you, Wikus.

Excellent. Thank you.

Just a last question. Your commercial book underwriting profits reduced by R1 billion, it does look like commercial property is where the impact of the large claims hit hardest, right?

It's maybe in my view a little bit disappointing given the geocoding and other actions you've taken to try to reduce your risk to such claims and catastrophes in that space. Maybe if you can just talk to the property market, large claims, and maybe also put in perspective the growth you've seen in commercial property premiums.

I think, Francois, if you look at the property line, you're 100% correct that essentially all of the weather-related and other large losses came through the property line. Normally for weather-related cats, you see very little claims from the motor book, and that was also the experience in this half of the year.

The other factor to take into account is of course the syndicate's maiden loss also comes through on kind of a commercial property line, so that's an additional factor to take into account. Overall, despite these two factors, the property book was still profitable, which is a complete different picture than what you would have seen two or three years ago.

We're very satisfied actually that the book is performing well. From a growth perspective in South Africa, I did note the increase of 6.4% in GWP in South Africa, and kind of single-digit growth is reflective of what we're seeing across most of the lines of business, with that 17% total growth in property being impacted by the syndicate and then the base effect of the MultiChoice transaction.

I think maybe just want to clarify the comment on the commercial property. We price the property portfolio, one, I think to meet our underwriting range, and we've seen that turnaround coming through from last year.

I think it's also important to say that we are pricing it through the cycle. The impact of a single half-year of extreme weather cat activity, I think, should not be the basis of extrapolation for the performance of the entire commercial property.

It is correct, as you point out, that that has come through, it's largely a commercial cat property impact, but even in that case, the property portfolio has shown, in our view, significant resilience. We're not in the space that we were several years ago where the actual underlying attritional losses on the property portfolio were significantly in the loss-making territory.

You do expect cat activity to impact the property portfolio, we see it also in the corporate property portfolio, but I think if you look through the cycle, I think that's how we measure the success of the underwriting on the property portfolio.

Now thanks, Tava. I'm just mindful of the time, we've got about 5 minutes remaining.

Operator, I'll take one more question on the line if there's one.

Thank you so much. Coming back now, Tava, there are a number of questions that I've grouped together.

One: can you explain our strategy in India?

Our strategy in India: so we've always been writing business in India through our Santam Re entity, and so what we've done with the GIFT City licensing is to effectively take our tiering as a reinsurer up three notches so that we're a second-level tier reinsurer. That effectively gives you almost second pick after the state reinsurance, so that puts us in pole position in terms of seeing the quality of the business.

We didn't have that capability when we were sitting in a Tier 4 position space. I think it's also important to say that as much as we've increased our tiering within India, it really is a long-term play.

We're very mindful of the fact that we've seen the India reinsurance rates drop significantly, I think we've seen rates drop as much as 80%. I think our overarching group philosophy around writing profitable business is an overarching factor, we're simply not writing business in the international space simply to drive premium volume.

I think in the long run, that increase in tiering of our reinsurer gives us incredible access and significant upside when we start to see the cycle turn in the years to come. That's really where our focus is in terms of what we're doing in India.

Then I think secondly, Wikus spoke a little bit earlier on about the SGI business, and so that continues to give us exposure in the retail third-party motor business, and so that's a business that we own together with the Sanlam Group. I think if you look at the Indian macro environment, I think there's nothing not to love about what we expect from a growth perspective from within the Indian macroeconomic environment.

We do believe that the combination of those investments, our reinsurance business into India, gives us a very strong foothold into what is an incredible opportunity in the years to come within the Indian economy.

Now thanks, Tava. I've got three questions which I'll group into one.

They're all relating to the Syndicate 1918. One: can you give us a context around the size and performance of the specialist business seated to 1918?

How is this decision has impacted the results reporting? That's one.

I think with the specialist, I'll remind you, Wikus, I'll keep you that. Then the second one speaks to the capacity growth that we're expecting for the syndicate in 2027.

Do you have a view of the split between the incremental new business and the seeded business?

I'll let Wikus talk to the quality of the business that we're seeding. I think maybe just to take a step back is that when we started the syndicate, our intention was to seed a significant portion of our specialist business to give the syndicate effective scale from day one.

I think we've successfully been able to do that. It is important, however, to say that given the lower volumes that we've seen in the specialist business within our South Africa market, and the pressure that the specialist business has come under, the amount of business that we have seeded, I think, has been slightly less than what we anticipated initially.

At the beginning of the year, we spoke to you about a stamp capacity of between 300 to 400 million. We are pleased that that stamp capacity is sitting at 375 million, and so we do expect that stamp capacity to sit at around 60/40% split between incremental new business and existing specialist business that we're seeding.

Maybe Wikus on the quality of the business?

The business that we're seeding from South Africa into the syndicate is specialist lines of business, it is very good quality, very good margin business that we are seeding into the syndicate. All of the syndicate numbers that we disclose are incremental numbers, because the business from South Africa eliminates on consolidation being intergroup, and the loss that we disclose for the syndicate includes actually the Lloyd's market-related cost on the seeded business as well.

That's again a incremental earnings impact for the syndicate strategy as a whole.

Then just on the last part in terms of the 2027 outlook, I think it's still early days, I think, for us to be giving a positioning on the syndicate stamp capacity for 2027. The planning process in earnest has begun, and I think at this point, we're quite pleased that we're towards the upper end of that 300 to 400 million range from a stamp capacity.

The Lloyd's market is coming under significant pressure in terms of what we're seeing in the property rates, and so that's creating significant rate pressure downward. If you've looked, I think, at Lloyd's results that we're seeing today, that a lot of the growth for Lloyd's is actually coming through the form of new syndicates, whereas actual rate growth has actually been lower.

That's again a caution in terms of expectation of growth for 2027. I think we're pleased with where the syndicate is today: good progress in terms of just building a quality underwriting team, which I think is the bedrock for success into the international space.

Now thanks, Tava. With that, I know we're out of time.

Just want to thank you for all your questions. We look forward to engaging with you in the next couple of days.

Maybe Tava, with your closing remarks?

Now thank you very much for joining us this morning. A big thank you to our brokers and our clients who support our business, our board, and our staff who've been a strong underpin to delivering the result that you see that we presented this morning.

Thank you all for your support and your support for our business. Looking forward to the engagements over the next couple of days.

Thank you very much for joining us this morning. Have a good day further.