Capitec Bank, which largely targets the mid to low-income market, upped its interim profit and dividend by 9% for the half-year ending 31 August 2023.

The Stellenbosch-headquartered group, which published its latest results on Thursday, said in a JSE short-form results announcement that headline earnings per share (Heps) increased by 9% to 4 072 cents, from the restated 3 738 cents in the comparative half-year. Heps is the key profit measure for most listed companies.

Capitec reported that its interim ordinary dividends increased to 1 530 cents per share (cps), from 1 400cps in the comparative period.

“The net asset value [total equity] increased by 13% to R39.353 billion, from the restated R34.813 billion in the comparative period,” the group added.

From an operating profit before tax perspective, the company saw an increase of 6% to R5.893 billion, from the restated R5.551 billion in the comparative half-year.

“The implementation of IFRS 17 necessitated the restatement of the group earnings and headline earnings per share for the 6 months ended 31 August 2022,” it pointed out.

Capitec said that its latest dividends will be paid on Monday, 23 October 2023, and noted that “there are 116 099 843 ordinary shares in issue’”.

On Wednesday, the group’s share price closed over 1.5% down ahead of the results release. The stock is down over 11% for the year to date.