Great news for Discovery Bank
Discovery Bank has seen its first profitable period following years of investment in the digital bank.
In a trading statement for the financial year ended 30 June 2025, the group noted that Discovery Bank generated its first profitable period during the second half of the financial year.
Although the bank broke even for the first time in December 2024, reporting periods in South Africa are typically done in half-year internals.
The group said the bank is now profitable ahead of plan, while acquiring quality clients has accelerated.
That said, the bank still made an overall loss during the financial year, but this loss was reduced by 82% to 87% over the period.
Looking at the group’s other business segments, Discovery Health saw solid earnings growth of between 4% to 9% amid further investment into technology and AI.
Discovery Life saw profit growth by 11% to 16%, mainly driven by what Discovery describes as exceptional claims experience.
Discovery Invest saw profit growth of between 27% and 32%, which was mainly driven by profit growth due to the value of assets under management and certain one-off benefits.
Discovery Insure executed pricing and claims management initiatives which, combined with benign weather conditions, significantly improved its claims ratio.
This led to a massive rise in profit of between 225% and 230% for Discovery Insure.
The international Vitality composite’s result showed substantial progress in restructuring all the global operations into a focused single business over the last nine months.
VitalityHealth’s performance was boosted by effective pricing actions, a stabilising claims environment and rigorous claims and expense management, with profit up by between 170% and 175%.
The group said that VitalityLife delivered strong earnings growth amid new business growth, driven by the effective execution of the Shared-value Insurance model.
China-based Ping An Health Insurance also saw a strong performance following the prior year’s strong growth that benefited from both a COVID-19 reserve release and a tax gain.
The Vitality Healthy Insurance Network saw losses reduce by between 23% and 27% as the group is underway to build greater, longer-term scale and value.
Overall, the group expects earnings per share to increase by between 23% and 28% to between 1,365.7 cents and 1,421.2 cents.
Headline earnings per share are expected to increase by between 27% and 32% to between 1,418.6 cents and 1,474.4 cents.
Normalised HEPS are also expected to increase by between 27% and 32% to between 1,443.0 cents and 1,499.8 cents.
Further details of the above will be provided in the groups annual financial statements that will come out on 11 September 2025.
| Metric | Expected Increase | Expected Range (cents) | Restated Prior Year (cents) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS (basic) | 23% – 28% | 1,365.7 – 1,421.2 | 1,110.3 |
| HEPS (basic) | 27% – 32% | 1,418.6 – 1,474.4 | 1,117.0 |
| Normalised HEPS (NHEPS, basic) | 27% – 32% | 1,443.0 – 1,499.8 | 1,136.2 |
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