Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
RAIZ enters residential property as users double
Raiz Invest (ASX: RZI) – The micro-investing app has announced its active customer numbers and its funds under management (FUM) statistics for the month to 30 April. The group is continuing to see strong growth as retail investors flock to the market.
The app continues to grow exponentially, up 96% over the last 12 months, while recording another 2.4% increase in active customers from 419,552 to 429,837. Customer sign-ups were up +3.1% to 1.64m in April and 91% for the year, while Investment Accounts grew 3.6% and 100% respectively to 795,265.
It’s been an impressive year for Raiz, with all three segments recording a near-doubling for the year. Raiz’s share price is up a cool 140.3% for the year.
Raiz Invest CEO George Lucas says, “Raiz continues to perform well and add customers after the 1 April 2021 fee increase – testimony to our strong brand and products that add value for our customers. This month also saw a successful capital raise to accelerate growth and agreement being reached on the acquisition of Superestate, a fund manager of a residential REIT and the promoter of the Superestate superannuation fund.”
Lucas highlighted the end-goal, to integrate the Superestate and Raiz product offerings with a residential REIT offering as an investment option both inside and outside superannuation.
On the FUM front, Raiz continues to kick goals. The company said “Australian FUM growth continues to accelerate with a 6.2% increase in April. We remain on target to reach $1 billion in FUM by the end of calendar 2021.”
Following its success in Australia, Raiz launched Raiz Invest in Indonesia. Raiz says it “will be a game-changer on how people invest. Raiz Invest will be the innovative solution for anyone who wants to start investing, but has never really taken the first step.” With a population of over 270 million, the opportunity is huge.
In this week’s announcement, Raiz touched on its Indonesian arm by saying “It continues to move forward in conjunction with our partner, for the integration of an insurance broker with the aim of offering micro-insurance products to our Indonesian customers via the Raiz platform. Indonesia and Malaysia performed well during the fasting month, which began in mid-April and will finish in mid-May. We continue to execute the same successful strategy in these countries as we have done in Australia.”
Indonesia is progressing well. Together with Malaysia, both recorded exceptional growth numbers during the fasting month, which began in mid-April and will finish in mid-May. Raiz finished by saying “We continue to execute the same successful strategy in these countries as we have done in Australia.”
