South African entrepreneur Charles Savage lifts Purple Group profit 36% to R150 million

Charles Savage, chief executive of South African financial services group Purple Group, has overseen the company's strongest financial year, with profit before tax increasing 36% to R150.2 million as its EasyEquities platform expanded its customer base and assets under management.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed group reported revenue of R534.2 million for the financial year ended August 31, 2026, up 9.8% from R486.7 million a year earlier. Profit before tax rose from R110.4 million to R150.2 million, while profit attributable to ordinary shareholders increased 30.6% to R79.7 million.

Savage described the year as the best in the company's history in his letter accompanying the audited results, released on November 11. He highlighted the contribution of customers, who deposited R16.8 billion during the year, an increase of 51% from the previous financial period.

The results reflect the growth of Easy Group, Purple Group's investment business, which includes EasyEquities. Easy Group generated revenue of R515.9 million, up 14.6% from R450.2 million, while its profit before tax climbed 49.4% to R160.5 million.

The platform's active client base increased 14.8% to 1,316,123, compared with 1,146,475 in the previous year. Client assets grew 32.8% to R107.2 billion from R80.7 billion, while retail inflows rose 51.1% to R16.81 billion.

Those figures place EasyEquities at the centre of Purple Group's financial performance. The platform was established to make investing more accessible to ordinary South Africans, offering customers access to a range of investment products through a digital service.

Savage has continued to position customer access and financial education as important parts of the business. Speaking on Kaya 959's Kaya Biz programme on November 12, he discussed the platform's customer growth, the role of retail investors in the latest results and plans to expand its reach beyond South Africa.

He also outlined the company's interest in entering Kenya, alongside its plans to apply artificial intelligence to customer services and internal operations. The proposed expansion would extend the group's efforts to take its investment platform into other markets.

The growth in Easy Group's earnings was stronger than its revenue increase. Its profit before tax rose nearly 50%, while operating expenses increased 8.2% to R328.1 million. At the wider Purple Group level, operating expenses increased 8.3% to R363.5 million, below the 9.8% growth in revenue.

The group's basic earnings per share increased 29.9% to 5.58 cents, while headline earnings per share rose 27.3% to 5.47 cents. Net asset value per share also improved, increasing 15.2% to 54.40 cents.

For Savage, the results mark a significant point in the development of a business that has spent more than a decade building an investment platform around retail participation. The increase in client numbers, assets and inflows suggests that the platform is continuing to attract investors while expanding the scale of its operations.

Purple Group's latest performance also highlights the contribution of its retail business to the wider group. Easy Group accounted for the bulk of consolidated revenue and reported a substantial increase in pre-tax earnings during the year.

As the company looks towards new markets and further technology investment, Savage's next challenge will be to sustain that growth while extending the platform's reach to more customers.