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The Professional Provident Society (PPS), which has been providing insurance and investment products exclusively to graduate professionals in SA since 1941, is now looking to new markets, including New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.

The mutual financial services company, which also operates in Namibia, began operating in Australia in 2016 as PPS Mutual and has already racked up more than 11 000 members with in annual in-force premium of more than A$70 million (about R850 million). PPS Mutual Australia is an affiliate business that falls under the group’s new markets and territories division, which is in the process of opening a New Zealand office later this year.

CEO Izak Smit says these new markets provide good revenue diversification and annuity income in hard currency. While the current focus is on New Zealand, he says PPS is also considering other English-speaking markets with friendly regulatory regimes, such as Ireland and Canada. It is also eyeing the US further down the track, though he stresses this will be done cautiously.