Media Coverage
Would-be Bank Zero owner Lesaka hits a major profit milestone
05 Feb 2026
By News24 | Karl Gernetzky
Nasdaq and JSE-listed Lesaka Technologies reported it met its guidance for a 14th consecutive quarter and has booked its first profit.
It is confident about its prospects after a series of acquisitions aimed at building a fintech ecosystem for SA merchants and consumers.
It is now hopeful that it can complete a tie-up with Bank Zero as early as June, eyeing huge benefits from the combination of its “boots on the ground” with Bank Zero’s tech and team leaders.
Fintech group Lesaka Technologies said on Thursday it is pleased with its first-ever quarterly profit and is optimistic of further boosts as it looks to conclude a tie-up with Bank Zero in the coming months.
Now one of SA’s biggest tech groups, Lesaka said that its revenue fell 3% to about R3 billion in its second quarter to end December, though operating income surged 265%. It felt pressure from a merchant division that’s undergoing changes, but other parts of the business fared better, and it booked net income (profit) of about R61 million, from a loss of about R590 million previously.
Lesaka, which is valued at about R6 billion on the Nasdaq, rebranded from Net1UEPS in 2022 when it acquired Connect Group for R3.8 billion, and it has been picking up substantial new businesses lately. It is building a fintech ecosystem thatwill offer financial services and payment processing to both consumers and merchants across the formal and informal sectors in Southern Africa.
It, for example, works with Shoprite to sell airtime and with SPAR for bill payments in their stores and recently was part of a collaboration with Luno, Sanlam and others to launch SA’s first rand-backed stablecoin.
It has been busy in recent years inking a series of further acquisitions, including for prepaid electricity submetering and payments business Recharger, Patrice Motsepe-backed payments firm Adumo, as well as recently a R1 billion deal forBank Zero, which was cofounded by Michael Jordaan.
Lesaka CEO Lincoln Mali told News24 that while the group did see some pressurein terms of airtime sales, it continues to acquire new merchants, with the group lifted by a “stellar” performance from its consumer-facing business.
The group was acquiring customers and growing its cross-sales, he said, giving it confidence of achieving positive full-year net income.
Lesaka reported that adjusted earnings in its merchant division slid 6%,accounting for just over half of its total, but it is also undergoing organisational changes, with this being “the year of reorganisation”.
The group has been consolidating its merchant division, putting together the likes of Adumo, Connect and GAAP, part of an organisation rebrand to just Lesaka.
“So you’re likely to be seeing lime green everywhere,” he said.
Banking boosts
Lesaka’s full-year guidance does not include any acquisition of Bank Zero. The deal has received approval from competition authorities but not yet from theReserve Bank’s Prudential Authority.
Mali said that for this reason, not too much could be said, but the group is being optimistic, hoping approval will come before June. The deal is set to bring major advantages, he said.
The group is acquiring Bank Zero through a deal that is mostly equity, Mali said.
“We are getting a management team that built a business from the ground up and are buying into our story,” he said.
“I mean, they built their tech from the ground up; they don’t have the legacy issues that many other banks suffer,” he added.
“They’ve got a modern tech platform that really will help us to take our tech to the next level.”
Lesaka will also now have the further advantage of lending off the back of bank deposits via Bank Zero, rather than borrowing from the market. This will be much more efficient for Lesaka and allow it to grow its books faster.