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CEO MESSAGE FOR
INTEGRATED REPORT
OVERVIEW
2017 was another challenging year for South Africa. We
contended with economic, political and environmental
challenges that suppressed commercial activity and business
confidence. Many of these challenges are South Africa specific,
locally generated, at a time when most of the rest of the world
is finally shrugging off the effects of the financial crises of a
decade ago and returning to growth and fuller employment.
In the financial services environment, times like this in South
Africa make signing up new business difficult and insurance
claims inevitably rise.
Despite these headwinds, the PPS team rose to the challenge
and recorded a solid operating profit for our members.
I applaud this result as a real achievement within the current
operating environment.
In this year of review, we grew our membership numbers across
all the group businesses, while our investments performed
above expectations.
In mid-2017 we established a new support unit offering
fiduciary services such as drafting wills and winding up
deceased estates. With this service in place, PPS is now one
of few South African financial services providers presenting
an end-to-end portfolio of solutions, and indeed the only one
that focuses exclusively on the unique needs of professionals.
Our offering ranges across healthcare administration, fiduciary
services, short and long-term insurance to financial planning
and investments.
Over the next year we will launch digital tools and other
initiatives to simplify and speed up intermediary and member
interactions with PPS, as expected by an increasingly
technological literate member base.
STRATEGY
An anomaly is that many of our members do not yet use
many of the PPS solutions. Now that we have rolled out a
complete across-the-board range of financial and healthcare
services, we can increase awareness of our services across the
membership base. In the spirit of mutuality, these will benefit
our members as much as the PPS Group, which is constituted
to return its profits to those very members.
PPS
INTEGRATED REPORT
2017
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