Weaver Fintech's retail roots fade as fintech engine roars - Sean Wibberley — Homechoice CEO Sean Wibberley

Weaver Fintech, the JSE-listed Mauritius-domiciled group formerly known as Homechoice International, reported a 23% jump in revenue to R5.5-billion for the year ended 31 December 2025 on Tuesday. Its shares jumped more than 9%.

Below the surface is a story of a new age fintech company outpacing the ageing mail order retail foundations on which it was built.

“Our fintech ecosystem continues to deliver exceptional growth through the expansion of high-margin revenue streams and the engagement of our large active customer base, coupled with the low cost of digitally acquiring new customers,” said Weaver Fintech CEO Sean Wibberley said a statement on Tuesday.

“We are scaling responsibly, investing in technology and deepening customer relationships while maintaining stable credit risk management to deliver sustainable margin expansion. The fintech business has a sizeable opportunity to grow market share across its payments, lending and insurance products.”

Trading profit jumped 41% to R1.15-billion and headline earnings per share climbed 40% to 552.7c. Some 93% of group trading profit comes from the fintech division, while the retail division is struggling with losses, mainly due to impairments.

The fintech division – which operates lending and insurance under the FinChoice brand and a buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment product under PayJustNow – generated R3.43-billion in revenue, up 36% year on year, and delivered R1.15-billion in trading profit. Its return on equity rose 610 basis points to 27%.

Retail turnaround?

The retail business, on the other hand, managed R2.03-billion in revenue and R100-million in trading profit before a R244-million non-cash impairment charge on property, plant, equipment, intangibles and right-of-use assets tipped the segment into an operating loss of R144-million.

Taken together, the group generated a profit before tax of R493-million. Taken separately, the fintech division generated R784-million in profit before tax while retail lost R189-million.

Weaver’s fintech ecosystem now serves just under four million customers, adding over 120 000 new sign-ups per month through its payments product. The BNPL offering – an interest-free, fee-free product marketed primarily at young women – functions as the customer acquisition engine. Once inside the ecosystem, customers are progressively cross-sold lending, insurance and wallet products.

Read: The top-performing South African tech shares of 2025

Cross-selling is a strong revenue multiplier for the group. A single-product customer generates an average annual revenue of R1 176. A customer holding two products generates over R10 000. Five or more products pushes that figure past R18 000. The 1.3 million customers actively using the ecosystem grew 47% year on year.

Gross merchant value processed through the payments platform grew 80% to R7.1-billion. The merchant network now exceeds 3 400 retailers, with Takealot and Shoprite added in fourth quarter of 2025 – their full-year contributions will only show up in FY2026 numbers.

Lending disbursements increased 20% to R7.6-billion, with 96% done digitally. Cash collections rose 45% to R15.2-billion – a figure the group notes is consistently higher than cash deployed, a structural characteristic of short-duration lending that keeps the book liquid.

Fee income, which includes BNPL merchant fees, service fees and insurance commissions, grew 44% to R1.07-billion and now makes up 29% of group revenue. Management has set a long-term target of 50%.

Despite the dominance of fintech, Homechoice CEO Chris de Wit said the retail business is gearing up for stronger performance in 2026. The R244-million impairment is part of efforts to strengthen the quality and profitability of the retail business, which is strategically shifting from growth mode to a focus on return on assets and cash generation. This meant tightening credit standards, pursuing higher-quality customers and shrinking book terms.

“While tighter credit impacted second-half growth, the shift positions us for healthier returns in 2026. Our expanded showroom network continues to drive strong customer acquisition and supports a more modern, customer-centric retail model,” said De Wit.