{"id":649822,"date":"2026-05-26T09:06:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:06:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=649822"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:20:09","slug":"pep-adds-1-3-million-smartphone-rental-accounts-in-six-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/649822-pep-adds-1-3-million-smartphone-rental-accounts-in-six-months.html","title":{"rendered":"Pep adds 1.3 million smartphone rental accounts in six months"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The cellular rental business of retailer Pepkor, FoneYam, activated 1.3 million accounts in the six months ended March 2026, a 32% increase compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FoneYam\u2019s performance helped Pepkor\u2019s financial services business achieve R691 million in operating profit for the period, a 63.4% increase \u2014 the fastest-growing division in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepkor\u2019s financial services arm included FoneYam, in-house credit provider Capfin, its insurance arm Abacus, and its upcoming digital bank, PlusB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abacus led the division in gains for the six months, more than doubling revenue to R718 million. Overall, the company experienced excellent performance in its burgeoning digital businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepkor reported that its FoneYam mobile phone rental business had 2.4 million active accounts. It described FoneYam as a secure, affordable option for renting a smartphone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers must return the device after the rental period, or they can pay the fair market value to keep the device. Pepkor also offered customers the option to take out a loan to keep the device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FoneYam also included insurance covering loss or theft of the device, as well as death, disability, and loss of income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its results, Pepkor said that the take-up rate for a second FoneYam rental among customers who have completed their first has exceeded expectations, indicating a return market for the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that the cellular rental book increased to R2.6 billion from R1.7 billion during the same period the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FoneYam activations were led by PEP stores, where 750,000 new rentals occurred over the six months, a 42% increase. Meanwhile, 531,000 new rental activations were recorded at Ackermans stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a 14% increase compared to the same period last year, while Dunns stores marked only 35,000 after the service was launched at the specific retail brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 million SIM cards activated through Pepkor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The results indicated that Pepkor now has an active cellular SIM base of more than 30 million individual cards. This generated R1.1 billion in ongoing revenue, a 13.4% increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the period, PEP stores sold 4.9 million handsets, while Ackermans sold 1.6 million. The largest growth came from Dunns, which saw its sales increase 42% to 225,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepkor\u2019s mobile business strategy is to offer customers affordable devices directly at its stores. This includes ultra-affordable models from brands like Mobicel and Stylo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also sells pre-owned iPhones and expanded into entry-level to mid-range Samsung, Honor, Xiaomi, Vivo and Motorola smartphones and tablets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepkor sells feature phones at low prices from brands like Nokia and Citrus, which can cost as little as R199 per device. The business expanded into tech accessories, including smart watches and earbuds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While its digital and tech businesses were growing, the group\u2019s bottom line was dominated by its clothing and general merchandise business, which recorded R39.2 billion in revenue for the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The single business division contributed 74% of the group\u2019s operating profit for the period, which gained 9.4% to R6.33 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings for continuing operations, a measure of company profitability, increased 10.3% to 93.1 cents per share, compared to 83.2 cents per share in the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that its key priorities moving forward encompass continued expansion of its retail platform, including the opening of 200 new stores in the 2026 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also sought to expand its financial services business through insurance, cellular rental and the group\u2019s upcoming banking proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was revealed<\/a> in 2025 that Pepkor was looking to launch a bank, at the time believed to be called \u201cPep Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing regulatory approval and the acquisition of the CloudBadger Technologies platform and team, Pepkor is establishing a bank and has completed its section 16 application,\u201d it said in its latest results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company indicated that PlusB would be officially registered as a bank as soon as the Section 16 application was approved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pepkor announced that its FoneYam business was booming, adding 1.3 million rental accounts in the last six months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":639973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[105486,105487,105485,105488,94993,70830,105484],"class_list":["post-649822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-abacus","tag-affordable-phones","tag-capfin","tag-cloudbadger-technologies","tag-foneyam","tag-pepkor","tag-plusb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649822"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650116,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649822\/revisions\/650116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}