Lesaka expects earnings to rise about 40% in 2026

Lesaka Technologies expects its earnings to rise about 40% in the 2026 financial year, the financial technology (fintech) operator said on Thursday. It will be the first time the group is net income positive under CEO Lincoln Mali, after years of work to revamp the once scandal-ridden entity.

“The assurance we are giving the market is that our net income number will be positive come financial year 2026,” Mali told Business Day on Thursday.

He said the company would give more details on how it will reach this goal in the new financial year. 

“The two big levers that we have are to make sure our ebitda grows, as guided, and that the scale of the business will increase. He added that certain noncash expenses and writedowns will no longer weigh on performance. 

Net1’s image was tainted by a 2014 Constitutional Court ruling that its payment arm, Cash Paymaster Services, unlawfully secured a R10bn contract to pay social grants monthly in 2012-18.

The company suffered huge losses after the contract was terminated in 2018, when it was challenged in court by one of the unsuccessful bidders, AllPay, which argued the tender process was irregular.

The backlash the company received led to an overhaul of its executive leadership and board in a bid to salvage its operations and position.

Mali and former boss Chris Meyer were brought in to turn the business around as part of the new management. 

The JSE- and Nasdaq-listed company, formerly Net1 UEPS Technologies, consists of two divisions: a merchant unit and a consumer segment. The consumer unit focuses on products such as unsecured credit, transactional banking, micro-insurance and value-added services through the EasyPay platform.

The group reaffirmed its earnings guidance for the 2025 fiscal year as it reported results for the third quarter to March, while also disclosing expectations for 2026.

Lesaka chairperson Ali Mazanderani said: “I am pleased that we have delivered on our guidance for the quarter and can reaffirm [financial year] 2025 full-year guidance. We are providing revenue and net revenue guidance, and projecting positive net income, for [financial year] 2026.”

He said at the midpoint of these measures this implied 23% growth in net revenue and 42% growth in group adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) year on year.

For the year to end-June 2025, the group expects revenue of R10bn-R11bn and group adjusted ebitda of R900m-R1bn.

For 2026 the company expects to report revenue of R11.4bn-R12.2bn, an 11% increase at the top end of the guidance. Net revenue is seen at R6.4bn-R6.9bn, while group adjusted ebitda is expected at R1.25bn-R1.45bn, 45% higher at the top end.

This comes as the group reported revenue of R2.5bn ($135.7m) for the quarter — at the midpoint of its revenue guidance — and compared with R2.6bn a year ago.

For the first nine months of the current year, Lesaka’s revenue was $428m (R7.82bn). 

The group reported operating income of R10.9m for the period, lower than the R15m in the year-earlier period, due to the inclusion of R42.3m one-off transaction costs.

Group adjusted ebitda was up 29% to R183.3m.

Revenue for the consumer division increased 32% in local currency to R445.8m, with segment-adjusted ebitda up 65% to R117.1m.

In the merchant business, revenue fell 10% in local currency to R1.9bn, with segment-adjusted ebitda up 7% to R149.9m.