Prominent South African investment app can be takeover target of a big bank

Former FNB chief executive and Purple Group shareholder Michael Jordaan said EasyEquities may become a takeover target for one of South Africa’s big banks.

Jordaan is one of South Africa’s most respected finance executives and the founder of Montegray Capital, a private investment company based in Stellenbosch.

Purple Group owns 70% of EasyEquities. Sanlam owns the other 30%, which it acquired in 2017 as part of EasyEquities’s effort to seek additional funding from a strategic partner.

Montegray Capital is one of Purple Group’s largest shareholders. It owns 59 million Purple Group shares, giving it a 4.17% shareholding.

This means that Michael Jordaan, who owns Montegray Capital, is well-positioned to comment on the market and EasyEquities.

EasyEquities has long had relatively free rein in the South African retail investing market, rapidly growing its client base and accumulating over R67 billion in assets on its platform.

However, this appears to have ended with two of South Africa’s largest banks, Investec and Standard Bank, launching direct competitors.

Clarity by Investec was officially opened to the public at the beginning of February after being only available to the bank’s private banking clients.

The platform provides registered account holders access to over 750 instruments listed on local and offshore markets through contract-for-difference (CFD) instruments.

Standard Bank’s Shyft offering has been around since 2016 as a platform built for buying and selling forex.

This was initially aimed at helping South Africans purchase forex digitally and spend their money globally through a physical card or virtually.

Gradually, the offering expanded beyond forex to enable South Africans to invest in global equities, beginning with the United States.

Over the past few years, it has expanded its investing universe to include European equities and UK-listed companies. It is set to offer access to the Australian equity market soon.

On 27 March 2025, Shyft announced that it would also give its clients access to investing on the JSE, enabling them to invest in local companies and ETFs.

Commenting on these developments, Jordaan said EasyEquities may be an attractive acquisition target due to its reach and growing platform assets.

“EasyEquities may become a takeover target for one of the big banks as it will take many years of organic growth to reach R55 billion,” he said.

Strong results from Purple Group and EasyEquities

Purple Group reported strong results for the first half of its 2025 financial year, with earnings increasing by over 200%.

Purple Group released its interim results for the six months through February 2025 on Wednesday, 9 April 2025.

The company reported revenue growth of 25.8% to R238 million, with its Easy Group segment delivering the lion’s share.

Easy Group, which houses EasyEquities, saw its revenue grow by 30.8% to R216 million in the six-month period.

The company’s basic and headline earnings per share increased 204.1% to 2.36 cents per share, more than its full-year earnings of 1.77 cents in the 2024 financial year.

It attributed most of this growth to Easy Group’s standout performance. This segment saw its after-tax profit grow by 238.3% in the period.

Easy Group’s active retail clients rose by 8.2% to 1.02 million, while its client assets under management grew by 31.4% to R67.2 billion.

Retail inflows performed strongly in the period, increasing by 63.3% to R5.31 billion, with average inflow per client up 49% to R5,201.

Easy Group’s six-month revenue has increased by R93 million over the last two years, while the six-month cost to serve has only increased by R22 million.

Purple Group said this demonstrates the scalability of this segment’s model and its improving margin quality.

“We’re hitting our stride. This isn’t just growth, it’s proof that our platform model scales with discipline and client-led intent,” Purple Group CEO Charles Savage said.

“While the macro environment is easing, ongoing uncertainty around global trade tactics – particularly from the United States – continues to influence sentiment.”

“What we’re seeing here isn’t a by-product of favourable conditions, but the outcome of deliberate decisions: to focus on value drivers, reduce friction, deepen engagement, and build for long-term resilience.”

He noted that client deposits are rising but are not yet back at peak levels, signalling that further upside remains as clarity returns to global markets.

This article was first published by Daily Investor and is reproduced with permission.