{"id":654447,"date":"2026-06-18T15:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=654447"},"modified":"2026-06-18T15:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T13:03:48","slug":"south-african-fintech-giant-tapping-a-secret-r1-trillion-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/654447-south-african-fintech-giant-tapping-a-secret-r1-trillion-economy.html","title":{"rendered":"South African fintech giant tapping a secret R1 trillion economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Altron Group said its Altron FinTech arm, its largest revenue driver over the last three years, is benefiting significantly from the township economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This informal sector of the economy is estimated to be worth between R500 billion and R1 trillion, and Altron FinTech is rapidly expanding its exposure to the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fintech business connects South African merchants and consumers, facilitates business payments, and processes R220 billion in transactions annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Altron’s latest Capital Markets Day report, the company said the standout performer for the group recorded an annual growth rate of 34%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the division recorded an operating margin of 36.6% for the 2026 financial year, with Payment and Collection Solutions growing rapidly since 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The main driver of this growth has been the adoption of Altron’s services by the informal economy,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Altron’s Kasi Sales Squad has successfully signed up many microfinance lenders in the townships, and we expect this to be the main driver of growth over the next three years.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kasi Sales Squad initially operated in Soweto, but has since expanded into Ekurhuleni and the Johannesburg CBD, and is planning to move into Gqeberha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altron said the division’s sales teams were focused on winning new customers and targeting a broad customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Altron FinTech has developed a distinctive distribution model and customer touchpoint network that enables it to reach a broad customer base,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“From large enterprise clients through to SMEs and customer segments that traditional financial services providers have struggled to serve cost-effectively.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that this broad base gives it a distinct route to market as it scales and expands its payments and collections platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altron also indicated that the fintech business will benefit from the South African government’s Payments Modernisation Programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It plans to roll out PayInc as a national payments utility following the South African Reserve Bank taking a 50% stake in the platform in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It will also allow companies that are not banks to access the PayInc infrastructure without bank sponsorship, subject to receiving an exemption,” said Altron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Using the PayInc rails will mean that Altron no longer has to operate on the Mastercard\/Visa rails, which should reduce the fees paid to banks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altron Group increases net profits by 78.55%<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Werner Kapp, Altron CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In its latest results, Altron Group increased its net profits by 78.55% to R741 million, thanks to gains at its core high-margin segment business, vehicle tracking firm Netstar, Altron FinTech and Altron HealthTech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FinTech was the major catalyst for earnings, driving overall group performance. Its revenue grew to R1.53 billion, a 20% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It provides digital payments and financial solutions, including debit order processing, payment and switching services, credit management software, and debit and credit card payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings, a metric which indicates company profitability, rose 34% to 239 cents per share, compared to 178 cents per share the year prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Werner Kapp, Altron Group CEO, said in May that the company delivered strong full-year results for 2026<\/a>, with EBITDA of R2 billion and operating profit of R1.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The operational momentum established in the first half of the year provided a solid foundation for an even stronger second-half performance,” he said previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Netstar posted R2.48 billion in revenue, leading Altron’s Platforms business. This represented a 9% year-on-year increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vehicle tracking business grew its subscriber base by 9% to 2.2 million private customers, while enterprise customers grew by 19%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altron HealthTech was the slowest-growing of the three platforms, increasing revenue by 2% to R403 million. Its operating profit reached 142 million in the financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altron Group declared both an ordinary and special dividend for shareholders following the successful year-end results. A total ordinary dividend of 120 cents per share was declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a 120 cents per share special dividend was also announced, returning a total of R500 million in excess cash to shareholders, the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Altron revenue and revenue growth by product area<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Altron FinTech revenues by product area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Revenue growth by product type, FY24\u201326<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Altron Group said that increased sales growth in its fintech arm is driven by new customers in the informal township economy, estimated to be worth between R500 billion to R1 trillion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":645966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[82179,58026,105960,105961,101217,105963,59943],"class_list":["post-654447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-altron-fintech","tag-altron-group","tag-altron-group-fintech","tag-kasi-sales-squad","tag-payinc","tag-payments-modernisation-programme","tag-werner-kapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654447"}],"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=654447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654536,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654447\/revisions\/654536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}