Ninety One shares tumble despite dividend hike and high annual profit

Ninety One PLC and Ltd said on Wednesday that the acquisition of assets from Sanlam Ltd helped lift its assets under management, helping drive growth in annual profit and prompting an extension of its share buyback programme.

The London and Cape Town-based money manager recorded assets under management of £171.8 billion on March 31, up 31% from £130.8 billion on March 31, 2025, due to net inflows of £2.8 billion and the Sanlam take-on of GBO18.3 billion.

During the 2026 financial year, Ninety One acquired Sanlam Investment Management Pty Ltd’s active asset management business in South Africa, and became the permanent investment manager to manage assets for Sanlam Investments UK Ltd. Sanlam received about 12.3% equity stake in Ninety One through a combination of Ninety One Ltd and Ninety One PLC shares.

Net inflows were £2.8 billion for the financial year to March 31, swung from £4.9 billion outflows a prior year.

For the 12 months that ended March 31, pretax profit was £207.5 million, up 2% from £204.3 million a year before.

Ninety One said there was a positive market and foreign exchange impact of £19.9 billion, up from positive £9.7 billion.

The money manager declared a final dividend of 7.4 pence from 6.8p, lifting to total payout for the 2026 financial year up 10% to 13.4p from 12.2p.

Ninety One said it has extended its share buyback to no later that July 21 and increased the programme to £55 million from £30 million. It launched the repurchase plan on March 2025.

Basic earnings per share and headline EPS were up 1.7% to 17.5p from 17.2p, while adjusted EPS rose 12% to 17.4p from 15.5p.

‘Ninety One is a resilient and robust business with positive momentum,’ Ninety One Founder & Chief Executive Officer Hendrik du Toit said, adding: ‘The demand recovery for emerging markets is visible and our offering competitive. We are in a stronger position than a year ago.’

Lookign ahead, Ninety One said it is moving from a defensive to a much more ‘risk-on’ approach, despite ‘an extremely challenging geopolitical environment’.

Shares in Ninety One in London declined 6.9% to 206.74 pence on Wednesday morning. In Johannesburg, Ninety One Ltd shares fell 6.1% to R 43.60, and Ninety One PLC slid 6.7% to R 45.24.

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