Discovery Bank CEO scores R60 million payday – over R20 million more than his boss
Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner has received R61 million in remuneration, over R20 million more than his boss, Adrian Gore, the Group CEO.
Kallner, who is also the CEO of Discovery South Africa, received a base salary of R8.7 million, as well as R25.8 million in performance bonuses and long-term incentives.
This brought his total single-figure remuneration to R61.1 million for the financial year ended June 30, 2025, significantly higher than Gore’s R37.2 million.
It was also higher than Group CFO Dein Viljoen’s R29.7 million and co-founder Barry Swartzberg’s R26.1 million.
However, Neville Koopowitz, the CEO of UK-based Vitality UK, earned £4.5 million. This works out to R105 million in rand terms.
The large amounts for Kallner and Koopowitz come as both massively outperformed their targets.
While Gore, Viljoen and Swartzberg all met or partially met their targets, Kallner and Koopowitz both exceeded their targets by a minimum of 110%.
Kallner’s outperformance was seen in Discovery Bank’s financial outcomes, business growth and strategic outcomes.
Kallner’s personal score stood at 272.46%, hence his massive bonus. Koopowitz’s score of 125.6% saw him earn a bonus of 1.7 million pounds (R40 million).
With Gore, Swartzberg and Viljoen all scoring around 102% in their personal scores, their bonuses trailed those of their colleagues.
Discovery Bank shines
Kallner’s remuneration comes after the Discovery Group saw a massive profit rise, with Discovery Bank breaking even for the first time.
Discovery Bank saw its total number of clients rise by 30%, advances increase by 39%, and deposits rise by 26%.
The bank also saw its first profitable period during the second half of the financial year, which was ahead of plan.
That said, the bank still declared a R68 million loss for the full financial year, but this was an 85% improvement from the 2024 financial year.
Discovery Health (7%), Discovery Life (14%), Discovery Invest (29%) and Discovery Insure (229%) saw rises in their normalised profit.
With this, Discovery SA, of which Kallner is also the CEO, saw normalised profit growth of 22% to R12 billion.
The strong performance of Discovery has drawn investors to the stock, with PSG Wealth Equity Analyst Marnus Piekaar issuing a buy recommendation for Discovery.
PSG Wealth noted that Discovery’s focus on affluent consumers who value rewards which allows for higher pricing while maintaining strong customer loyalty and brand strength.
The data-driven Vitality platform in South Africa also drives deeper engagement and cross-selling opportunities.
The business’s cash flows are also predictable, with earnings well spread across health, life, banking and other fee-based services.
The product suite also enables Discovery to increase its value per client by cross-selling health, life, banking and investment products. This increases revenue without incurring acquisition costs.
Piekaar added that there is long-term upside from further International Vitality partnerships, new product extensions, and Discovery Bank’s continued expansion.
That said, Discovery does face the risk of increased competition, especially in the digital banking space.
Sanlam and TymeBank have recently announced a joint venture where they will offer personal loans.
Old Mutual has also recently launched its own bank, which will operate digitally and will not have any physical branches, similar to Discovery Bank.
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