Purple Group CEO Charles Savage says the company had said for many years that operating leverage was coming, and this could now be seen in the financial results for the six months to February 28, 2026.
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Purple Group’s share price shot up over 7% on Tuesday after a standout performance from its EasyRetire unit helped boost group profit by over a fifth for the six months to February 28, 2026.
EasyRetire Retail client assets amounted to R2.1 billion by the end of the interim period, 97% higher than R700 million three years ago.
“The retirement opportunity is just getting started. The engine behind it is our 1% transfer campaign, which gives clients a direct financial incentive to bring their retirement assets home to EasyEquities," said the CEO Charles Savage.
"Transfer clients have been arriving at seven times the assets of the average EasyEquities retail client. That is not just growth. That is high-quality, compounding growth.”
The share price surged 7.9% to R2.05 on the JSE Tuesday afternoon, a price that had more than doubled from 99 cents a year previously.
Group revenue increased by 8.8% to R258.5m in the six months, operating expenses increased by only 0.5% to R161.1m, and attributable profit increased 21.2% to R40.6m.
Easy Group revenue increased by 18.5% to R256.5m. Active clients increased by 21.9% to 1,244,996 in the current period. Client assets increased by 41.2% to R94.93bn. Retail inflows increased 51% to R8.02bn.
“For years we said the operating leverage was coming. You can see it now in every line of the highlights,” said Savage in a letter to shareholders.
He said the small increase in costs was the result of “a decade of building a platform designed to scale, and a client base that deepens its engagement year after year.”
“Revenue grew eleven times faster than costs…Easy Group generated 84% of what it delivered in the full FY2025. That is not just growth. It is acceleration,” said Savage.
At the EasyTrader unit, a loss was driven entirely by a net hedging loss of R21.3m which arose from an unusual market condition that broke the correlation assumptions within the hedging model.
“In response, the risk management policy and hedging model have been updated to implement like-for-like hedging, eliminating correlation risk entirely. Hedging capacity and counterparty arrangements have also been expanded to ensure redundancy and increased liquidity.”
In March 2026 EasyTrader revenue came in above R5.7m, consistent with normal run-rates.
“What matters is what sits underneath that. Funded clients increased 270%. Trades increased 84%. Nominal traded value increased 291%. Trading revenue increased 74.4%. The business is scaling strongly,” said Savage.
EasyTrader 2.0 and a partnership-driven entry into prediction markets were planned for the second half, which were aimed at diversifying revenue further and reducing the hedging book's weight in the overall result.
In the Easy Asset Management & EasyETFs segment, assets under management came in at R2bn in under 18 months. EasyETFs passed R2bn in assets under management in March 2026.
“The opportunity is a trillion-rand industry still largely held in the old world of unit trusts, opaque fee structures, and legacy platforms that have not had to compete on transparency. That world is transforming. Listed ETFs are pulling assets toward clarity, lower cost, and accessibility at a pace that is only accelerating. EasyETFs is positioned at the front of that shift, not chasing it,” said Savage.
In March, in a more volatile global environment, retail deposits had broken every record in the company's history. Total deposits exceeded R2.5bn and retail deposits exceeded R1.9bn.
Meanwhile, EasyEquities Philippines was now live.
“The country has 115 million people. Our partner GCash has over 97 million registered users, over 80 million of whom are active, the dominant financial infrastructure of the market,” said Savage.
And on February 3, 2026, EasyEquities became a founding distribution partner for ZARU, South Africa's first institutional-grade rand-backed stablecoin. The collaboration brings together Luno, Sanlam Specialised Asset Management, EasyEquities, and Lesaka.
“The problem ZARU solves is real. Cross-border payments involving the rand have historically been slowed by banking hours, delays, and fees. ZARU operates on a blockchain, enabling 24/7 instant settlement while keeping the underlying rand assets anchored in the South African financial system, and creating new global demand for rand-denominated holdings in the process.”
Purple Group's board had approved the acquisition of an as yet unnamed AI technology business, subject to due diligence currently underway.
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