South African Financials: Feedback from Singapore and Hong Kong EM investor meetings

Research evidence excerpt

South African Financials: Feedback from Singapore and Hong Kong EM investor meetings

J P M O R G A N CEEMEA Equity Research

19 June 2026

South African Financials

Feedback from Singapore and Hong Kong EM investor

meetings

We spent the past week meeting with a number of EM investors across Singapore CEEMEA Financials

ACand Hong Kong to discuss our views on South African banks and insurers. Overall, Baron Nkomo

we found sentiment to be constructive, even setting aside recent positive (27-11) 507-0385

developments in the Middle East conflict, although investor positioning remains baron.nkomo@jpmorgan.com

selective. It came as no surprise that the larger, more liquid stocks dominated the J.P. Morgan Equities South Africa (Pty) Ltd.

airtime: Capitec, FirstRand and Standard Bank among the banks, and Discovery Pooja Ruia

and Sanlam among the insurers. Banks remain the clear preference over insurers, (91-22) 6157-3688

pooja.ruia@jpmchase.com

largely because they are seen as less complex than insurers – a familiar view even J.P. Morgan India Private Limited

for investors active in other EM insurance markets. Our sense is that many

investors are looking to the upcoming banks' trading updates to reinforce their

positive views. As we highlighted in our banks preview note (link), we think

reaffirming versus changing guidance will be key for sentiment. In between the

banks’ updates, we will also be hosting our 2nd Annual SA Financials Fintech/

Insurtech Call Series (register for the sessions here). In this short note, we highlight

the key take-aways and discussion points from our meetings. If you would like to

discuss or catch up on the SA financial sector in more detail, please let us know or

reach out to your JPM sales representative.