Introduction: Navigating the Old Mutual Share Price on the JSE

Understanding the trajectory of the old mutual share price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) requires looking past daily market movements and analyzing the structural transformation of one of Africa’s oldest financial institutions. Currently trading in the R12.70 to R13.20 range (approximately 1,270 to 1,320 South African cents) as of May 2026, Old Mutual Limited (JSE: OMU) is navigating a pivotal period of strategic transition. Investors analyzing the stock are weighing its exceptionally high dividend yield and steep valuation discount against margin pressures in its core life insurance business and the costs of launching its new digital banking platform, OM Bank.

Following the release of its robust yet complex FY 2025 annual financial results in March 2026, the market is asking a critical question: Is Old Mutual an undervalued gem with asymmetrical upside, or is its discount justified by structural headwinds? For long-term investors, the answer lies in understanding the company's financial fundamentals, its aggressive cost-cutting measures, and the ongoing leadership transition as former FirstRand chair Roger Jardine prepares to assume the chairmanship in June 2026. This comprehensive analysis unpacks everything driving the old mutual share price to help you make an informed investment decision.

Old Mutual Limited (JSE:OMU): Profile and Market Listings

To evaluate the long-term value of the old mutual share price, we must first dissect the sheer scale and history of this financial services giant. Founded in Cape Town in 1845 by John Fairbairn and Saul Solomon, Old Mutual has spent over 181 years establishing itself as an anchor of African financial markets. The group serves millions of customers across 12 countries in Africa, with a niche business in China.

Old Mutual's primary share listing is on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange under the ticker OMU. However, reflecting its deep regional dominance and history, the company maintains listings on several other exchanges as well:

• London Stock Exchange (LSE): A standard listing representing its historical global footprint.
• Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX): Connecting Namibian retail and institutional investors.
• Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE): Serving a critical, high-inflation market.
• Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE): Capitalizing on one of Africa’s most stable economies.

This multi-listed structure provides the company with diversified capital pools but also introduces complex regulatory dynamics and currency exposure that directly influence the old mutual share price on the JSE. Historically, Old Mutual operated as a mutual life assurance society until its demutualization and listing on the LSE and JSE in 1999. In 2018, the group concluded a historic "managed separation" process. This involved the separation and unbundling of its massive holdings—including its majority stake in Nedbank and its international wealth management arm, Quilter—to return focus to its core African operations. Today, Old Mutual operates as a lean, Africa-centric financial services group.

Its core business lines are divided into several highly specialized clusters:

• Life and Savings: Providing retail and corporate life insurance, retirement annuities, and savings products. This is the historical profit engine of the group.
• Old Mutual Insure: The short-term property and casualty insurance division, which has emerged as an exceptional operational performer.
• Wealth Management: Offering discretionary investment management, retail investment platforms, and tailored financial planning.
• Asset Management: Managing large-scale institutional and retail funds.

Recently, the company has made two bold strategic pivots to diversify its earnings and drive customer acquisition. First, the group launched OM Bank to the South African public, a fully digital retail bank subsidiary designed to capture transactional banking clients and compete directly with Capitec, TymeBank, and traditional lenders. Second, Old Mutual finalized the acquisition of a majority stake in Cape Town-based investment firm 10X Investments for R2.2 billion. This acquisition positions Old Mutual to aggressively capture the rapidly growing low-cost passive index-investing market in South Africa, which has traditionally been dominated by niche disruptors.

Unpacking the FY 2025 Financial Performance (March 2026 Results)

On March 17, 2026, Old Mutual released its audited results for the financial year ended December 31, 2025. The announcement sparked significant volatility in the old mutual share price, as the market digested a highly nuanced picture of operational strength offset by accounting adjustments and margin pressure.

On one hand, Old Mutual delivered a spectacular 47% surge in pretax profit, rising to ZAR 22.71 billion (approximately £1.02 billion) from ZAR 15.49 billion in FY 2024. This massive spike was driven primarily by exceptional investment returns, which grew 46% to ZAR 222.54 billion, and solid underwriting performances within Old Mutual Insure and the Wealth Management division. Total insurance revenue for the year rose 12% to ZAR 81.57 billion, highlighting robust premium inflows despite tight macroeconomic conditions across Southern Africa.

On the other hand, several key profitability and value creation metrics disappointed institutional investors, leading to a temporary pullback in the stock. Headline Earnings Per Share (HEPS)—often regarded as the truest measure of operational performance for South African firms—declined slightly by 0.5% to 201.6 cents per share (compared to 202.7 cents in 2024). This flat HEPS performance was caused by complex factors, including capital restructuring costs, hyperinflation accounting adjustments in Malawi, and strengthened persistency assumptions within the Life and Savings cluster.

Perhaps the most crucial metric for value investors is Group Equity Value (GEV). In its 2025 results, Old Mutual reported that GEV per share increased by 2% to R19.80. When compared to the current old mutual share price of around R12.79, the stock is trading at an astonishing 35.4% discount to its Group Equity Value. Historically, South African life insurers trade at a discount to GEV (often referred to as a "complexity discount"), but a discount of over 35% indicates that the market is heavily discounting the value of Old Mutual’s underlying assets and transition initiatives.

Additionally, Old Mutual succeeded in meeting its Return on Net Asset Value (RONAV) target, which rose 250 basis points to 15.2%, successfully placing it within the company’s medium-term target range of 15% to 17%. However, its Return on Group Equity Value (RoGEV) came in at just 4.1% (normalized to 10.1%), well below the management's target of 14% to 16%. This underperformance was primarily driven by the Life and Savings division, where the Value of New Business (VNB) margin collapsed from 2.5% in 2024 to just 1.2% in 2025, as a result of assumption changes regarding client policy retention (persistency) and lower annuity sales.

To provide a clear snapshot of how these operational results compare to the prior financial year, refer to the table below:

Understanding the Persistency Assumption Impact

To understand why the old mutual share price faced headwinds despite surging profits, investors must understand the actuarial mechanics of "persistency assumptions." In the life insurance sector, persistency refers to the rate at which clients keep their policies active without canceling or letting them lapse.

Because South African consumers have faced severe macroeconomic pressure from high interest rates and inflation over the last two years, policy lapse rates rose. Consequently, Old Mutual's actuaries had to adjust their persistency assumptions, assuming that more clients will cancel their policies early in the future. In actuarial models, early cancellations reduce the long-term expected cash flow of existing policies, which immediately reduces the present value of future profits—resulting in the VNB margin falling to 1.2%. While this is a non-cash accounting adjustment, institutional investors heavily penalize insurers that experience downward VNB momentum, as it signals lower embedded profitability in the new books being written.

The Income Generation Play: Old Mutual Dividends and the R3 Billion Buyback Program

For retail and institutional investors, the primary reason to hold Old Mutual in their portfolio is income generation. In an environment where South African equities have faced prolonged valuation pressure, the dividend profile of the old mutual share price offers an exceptional yield.

Despite the headwinds in its Life and Savings margin, the Old Mutual board demonstrated high confidence in its cash-generation capability by declaring a final dividend of 56 South African cents per share for FY 2025. This brought the total dividend payout for the year to 93 cents per share, reflecting a robust 8.1% year-on-year increase from the 86 cents paid in 2024.

Let’s put this into perspective using a valuation model based on a recent old mutual share price of R12.79:

• Total Dividend (FY 2025): 93 cents
• Current Share Price: R12.79 (1,279 cents)
• Dividend Yield: 7.27%

A dividend yield of over 7.2% is exceptionally high, comfortably outpacing the dividend yields of peer life insurers like Discovery (which historical averages place below 2%) and trading on par with high-yield financial options like Sanlam (around 5.7%). Furthermore, Old Mutual’s dividend payout is backed by a solid cash coverage ratio, aligning with its commitment to return excess capital to shareholders.

Beyond direct dividend payouts, Old Mutual has actively deployed capital to support the old mutual share price through share repurchases. In September 2025, the company launched a substantial R3 billion share buyback program. By the time the annual results were presented in March 2026, Old Mutual had successfully repurchased shares worth R700 million.

Share buybacks are highly accretive for long-term investors. By buying back and canceling its own shares at a massive 35% discount to Group Equity Value, Old Mutual’s management is effectively purchasing R1.00 of assets for roughly R0.65. This reduces the total outstanding share count, automatically boosts future Earnings Per Share (EPS) and Dividend Per Share (DPS) metrics, and provides a continuous, supportive buying force in the open market. Investors can expect the remaining R2.3 billion of the buyback program to act as a significant buffer against downward pressure on the old mutual share price throughout 2026.

Key Growth Catalysts and Risks Facing Old Mutual in 2026

As Old Mutual embarks on its refreshed strategic roadmap under the theme of "Unlocking Value and Generating Growth," several catalysts and risks will determine the trajectory of the old mutual share price over the next 12 to 24 months.

The Growth Catalysts

1. OM Bank and Ecosystem Monetization: The launch of OM Bank represents a dramatic shift. While building a banking infrastructure is capital-intensive, it offers a major strategic advantage. By cross-selling low-cost banking to its millions of existing insurance and funeral policy clients, Old Mutual can lower its customer acquisition costs, capture lucrative transactional data, and build a highly integrated financial services ecosystem. If OM Bank can gain rapid traction, it will likely prompt a re-rating of the old mutual share price as analysts begin valuing it as a financial conglomerate rather than just a legacy life insurer.
2. 10X Investments Integration: The R2.2 billion acquisition of 10X Investments allows Old Mutual to dominate the corporate and retail low-cost indexing market. As retail investors globally and locally shift away from high-fee active funds to passive alternatives, 10X gives Old Mutual the immediate "right to win" in this highly competitive arena.
3. Operational Model Decentralization and Cost Cutting: Under CEO Jurie Strydom, who assumed the role in June 2025, Old Mutual has implemented a leaner, highly decentralized operating model. By empowering cluster profit-centers and aggressively stripping out corporate overhead, management is targeting R2.5 billion in structural cost savings by the end of 2027. Stripping out administrative bloat directly improves operating margins.
4. Smooth Leadership Transition: A critical corporate governance milestone is occurring in mid-2026. The highly respected Trevor Manuel is set to retire as chairperson at the close of the AGM on June 5, 2026. He is succeeded by Roger Jardine, the former chairperson of FirstRand with a phenomenal track record in financial services. Jardine’s deep operational expertise, paired with the energetic execution of CEO Jurie Strydom, provides a fresh, authoritative leadership team capable of navigating complex regulatory and economic environments.

The Structural Headwinds

1. Persistency Challenges in Life Insurance: High inflation and elevated interest rates in South Africa have severely squeezed consumer wallets over the past few years. This has led to a rise in early policy lapses and surrenders. While economic indicators are beginning to stabilize in 2026, any prolonged consumer weakness will continue to pressure Old Mutual's life insurance persistency assumptions and compress VNB margins.
2. Malawi Hyperinflation and Forex Shortages: Old Mutual operates extensively across Africa, which offers exceptional growth but also high volatility. In particular, the Malawian economy continues to require hyperinflationary accounting. Shortages of foreign currency and currency devaluations in key African territories can significantly distort the group's reported adjusted headline earnings.

Peer Valuation: How Old Mutual Compares on the JSE

To determine if the current old mutual share price represents a buying opportunity, it is instructive to run a peer-group comparison against its major competitors on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange: Sanlam Limited (JSE: SLM), Discovery Limited (JSE: DSY), and Momentum Metropolitan Holdings (JSE: MTM).

Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Multiple

Old Mutual trades at a remarkably low forward Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of approximately 6.3x (based on recent May 2026 data). In contrast, Sanlam trades at a P/E of roughly 10.8x, and Discovery trades at a premium P/E of 16.0x. Momentum Metropolitan sits around 7.7x. Old Mutual's single-digit P/E multiple suggests the market is pricing in significant risk, making it one of the cheapest large-cap financial stocks on the JSE.

Dividend Yield Comparison

At 7.3%, Old Mutual’s dividend yield is highly superior to almost all its direct peers. Sanlam offers a yield of around 5.7%, and Momentum Metropolitan pays roughly 5.4%. Discovery, which historically prioritizes capital reinvestment over payout, offers a low dividend yield of just 1.2%. For income-focused portfolios, OMU is the undisputed leader in this peer group.

Price-to-Book and Equity Value Discount

As established, Old Mutual trades at a steep 35% discount to its Group Equity Value (GEV) of R19.80. Sanlam typically trades at a much narrower discount (or even at a premium during bullish cycles) due to its superior return on embedded value and successful international partnerships. Discovery’s proprietary behavioral model ("Vitality") also earns it a significant premium.

While Old Mutual has historically suffered from a "complexity discount" due to its legacy structures, the current gap is excessively wide. As CEO Jurie Strydom successfully executes the R2.5 billion cost-saving target and stabilizes the VNB margin, this valuation gap should narrow, presenting substantial capital appreciation potential for investors buying at current price levels.

Actionable Guide: How to Buy Old Mutual Shares

If you have analyzed the metrics and decided to add Old Mutual to your investment portfolio, executing the transaction is a straightforward process. Here is an actionable guide to purchasing OMU shares on the JSE:

1. Choose a Stock Broker: To buy shares on the JSE, you must open an account with an authorized stockbroker. Popular and cost-effective digital options in South Africa include EasyEquities, Standard Bank’s SBG Securities, and FNB Share Investing. For international investors, global brokers offering access to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) can be used to purchase Old Mutual shares under the same ticker, OMU.
2. Fund Your Trading Account: Once your FICA (Financial Intelligence Centre Act) verification is complete, deposit funds into your brokerage account via EFT or credit card.
3. Search for Ticker "OMU": Log in to your trading platform and search for "OMU" or "Old Mutual Limited."
4. Select Your Order Type: You can place a Market Order (to buy immediately at the current market price) or a Limit Order (to buy only when the price drops to a specific target level).
5. Confirm and Hold: Execute the trade. It is recommended to hold Old Mutual shares within a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) if possible, although JSE-listed individual equities are subject to strict annual TFSA limits in South Africa. Note that South African residents are subject to a 20% Dividends Withholding Tax (DWT), which is automatically deducted by your broker before the dividend is paid into your account.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the current Old Mutual share price?

As of mid-May 2026, the Old Mutual share price is trading in the range of R12.70 to R13.20 (1,270 to 1,320 South African cents) on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

What ticker does Old Mutual trade under?

Old Mutual Limited is listed under the ticker OMU on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), London Stock Exchange (LSE), Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX), Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), and Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE).

What was Old Mutual's total dividend for FY 2025?

Old Mutual declared a final dividend of 56 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the financial year ended December 31, 2025, to 93 cents per share. This represented an 8.1% increase year-on-year.

Who is the current CEO of Old Mutual?

Jurie Strydom is the Chief Executive Officer of Old Mutual Limited, having assumed the role in June 2025. He replaced the outgoing CEO, Iain Williamson.

Why is the Old Mutual share price trading at a discount to its Group Equity Value?

The market currently discounts Old Mutual shares by approximately 35% relative to its Group Equity Value of R19.80 due to several factors. These include the capital expenditure required to scale the newly launched OM Bank, recent margin compression in its Life and Savings division (VNB margin of 1.2%), and hyperinflationary headwinds in rest-of-Africa operations like Malawi. As these strategic initiatives mature and generate stable cash flows, the valuation gap is expected to close.

Conclusion: Is Old Mutual an Asymmetric Investment Opportunity?

The investment case for Old Mutual is defined by a striking contrast between current valuation and future potential. At a forward P/E of just 6.3x and a massive 35.4% discount to its Group Equity Value of R19.80, the old mutual share price reflects a significant margin of safety. The market has priced in the transition risks associated with the launch of OM Bank and the operational drag of lowered persistency assumptions in the life book.

However, for patient value investors, Old Mutual offers a highly attractive asymmetric profile. While you wait for the strategic initiatives to bear fruit under CEO Jurie Strydom and chairman-designate Roger Jardine, you are paid a highly secure, market-beating 7.3% dividend yield, which is further supported by an ongoing R3 billion share buyback program. If management can successfully deliver on its R2.5 billion cost-saving target by 2027 and successfully scale OM Bank, the closing of the equity value discount could yield spectacular capital gains. For those seeking defensive, cash-generative financial stocks on the JSE, Old Mutual remains a compelling buy.