A surge in Capitec’s share price and profit in the 2025 financial year has seen the group’s executives handsomely rewarded, with outgoing group CEO Gerrie Fourie’s total pay including incentives breaching the R100m mark — making him one of the best paid executives on the JSE.
In its annual report published on Wednesday the bank said Fourie’s total remuneration for the year under review came in at R104m, including short-term incentives (STIs) and long-term incentives (LTIs) totalling R86m.
The LTIs of R75m were primarily driven by growth in the company’s return on equity, a surge in headline earnings and a more than 50% growth in the share price and, by extension, the group’s market capitalisation.
The company reported a 30% increase in headline earnings, while its share price grew 52% in the period — dwarfing its rival banks.
Vusi Mahlangu, remuneration committee chair, said in his letter to shareholders that the company’s remuneration framework had proven its effectiveness in driving exceptional performance while maintaining strong governance.
“The results speak for themselves — we have seen outstanding leadership performance, the achievement of key strategic milestones and sustainable value creation,” he said.
“The exceptional business achievements of the 2025 financial year have translated into strong executive remuneration outcomes, demonstrating the effectiveness of our pay-for-performance philosophy,” reads the letter.
“Our robust share price growth of 52% during the period, underpinned by outstanding headline earnings on the back of the successful execution of prioritised strategic initiatives, resulted in above-target STI payments to our executives for the 2025 financial year.”
The group’s CFO was paid R20m in the year, with more than half of that made up of incentives. The company said it was proud of improving the pay of its employees across the group.
It said in 2021, about 9% of its workforce earned below R180,000/year and it has reduced this to just 2%; this group of employees is made up of recent graduates and learnership interns.
“In addition, we have also made great progress in moving a large component of our employees who were earning between R180,000 and R250,000 in 2021 to beyond R250,000 per annum in 2024 (ie an increase in the R250,000-R500,000 earning bracket from 18% in 2021 to 62% in 2024),” it said.
SA’s banks have begun disclosing their minimum pay.
Nedbank last week said it had increased its minimum wage by 6.7% to R240,000 a year with effect from this month.
Rival Absa hiked its minimum pay 8.7% to R250,000 — also with effect from April. The country’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank, pays a minimum salary of R258,390 for its unionised employees in SA.
FirstRand, owner of FNB, RMB and WesBank, among other brands, has been paying a minimum guaranteed package for banking roles of R215,000 a year since August 1 2024.
The group also pays a minimum of R185,000 a year for nonbanking roles. Both amounts exclude performance-related variable pay, medical aid subsidy and school fee assistance for eligible employees.
Investec’s last annual report showed the group’s minimum salary for employees in SA was R250,000 a year.
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