FINTECH ACCELERATES HIL’S PROFITABLE GROWTH
Annual Results Highlights for the 12 months ending 31st December 2024:
- Group revenue up 21% at R4.4 billion
- PBT up 31.2% at R0.5 billion
- Customer base up to 3.1 million (2023: 2 million)
- Collections up 42% from high yielding portfolios
Headline earnings per share up 27.3% to 393.8 cents.
Mauritius 11th March 2025. Homechoice International (JSE: HiL) delivered another strong set of trading results across the group for the year ended 31 December 2024. Topline revenue for the group is up 21% to R4.4 billion and profit before tax is up 31.2% to R517 million.
Weaver Fintech continues to deliver excellent growth, with revenue and profit CAGRs over 30% for the past five years. Supported by Weaver’s acquisition of over 100,000 new customers every month, the group’s customer base has grown to 3.1 million, up 53% from 2023. Retail’s showroom expansion has also driven growth and new customer appeal, with retail sales up 8.3% to R1.3 billion.
Weaver Fintech
Weaver is a highly profitably fintech with a growing customer base delivering 92% of the group’s PBT (before group costs) at R561 million, up 31.6% for the year.
Digital lending products have grown by 31.2% to R6.4 billion in disbursements in 2024. Repeat customers make up 85% of loans disbursed, enabling effective credit risk management. Weaver’s stand-alone funeral and new personal accident insurance drive fee income and deliver significant cross-sell opportunities for the ecosystem. Gross written premiums (GWP) increased by 23% to R182 million. 41% of new policies are now acquired end-to-end through digital channels (FY2023: 36%), reducing the cost of acquisition and improving the customer experience.
Weaver’s digital payments business has seen impressive growth, with Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) up 157.1% and 2.4 million signed-up customers making it the dominant buy now play later business in South Africa. More than 2 800 merchants are now part of Weaver’s ecosystem, spanning online and in-store points of sale at well-known national retailers. Sizeable value was delivered to merchants who benefitted from 25 million lead referrals generated via multiple customer touchpoints.
The power and opportunity that Weaver’s digital ecosystem offers is evidenced by 20% of active customers having multiple financial products growing by 27% in 2024; with a goal of increasing this to 50%.
“At the heart of the Weaver ecosystem is a commitment to responsible, accessible, and digitally-enabled financial services. We are investing significantly in technology and data in our digital payments business and our lending solutions, building a financial platform that customers trust and businesses want to partner with, driving our future growth,” says Sean Wibberley, CEO of HiL.
Retail
Retail increased revenue by 6.7% to R1.9 billion with PBT up 85.2% to R50 million. Sales growth in H2 of 2024 was particularly notable, increasing by 15%. Supply chain efficiencies and clear focus on the heritage bedding business delivered an additional 270bps in gross profit. Expanding the showroom channel footprint, along with bespoke digital chat services are key strategic priorities for driving profitable growth and new customer acquisition.16 new showrooms were opened in 2024 with our new smaller formats delivering double digit margins and under two year payback. The 37 showrooms located for our customers’ convenience contributed 26% in sales (up from 17% last year). Retail anticipates opening a further 22 showrooms in FY25 with the longer-term potential to reach 100.
Looking ahead to 2025
- Weaver is expected to continue to outpace the market as velocity across the ecosystem and embedded financial products drive profitable customer growth.
- Retail credit innovation, PayStretch™, a point-of-sale payment product, is building strong traction with both customers and merchants.
- Retail is accelerating its showroom roll-out and focusing on digital chat strategies to deliver enhanced profits.
- Management is committed to continue investing in technology, AI tooling, processes and people to support growth in future years.
“Our strategy is delivering robust growth across our businesses, with consistency evident in both our operations and results. Retail’s omni-channel strategy has positioned the business for strong profit growth. Weaver’s digital ecosystem thrives on innovation—seamlessly integrating merchants, customers and our range of financial products to make access to credit and payments convenient, cashless and inclusive. With more than 2.7 million financial services customers and a rapidly expanding digital footprint, we are well placed for further expansion, supporting new customer acquisition and increased engagement opportunities, while transforming how South Africans engage with financial solutions,” concludes Shirley Maltz, Executive Chair of HiL.
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