R20 million payday for Discovery CEO Adrian Gore

Insurance and finance group Discovery has published its integrated annual report for 2018, revealing what its top executives got paid for the year.

Group CEO, Adrian Gore, was rewarded with a total package of R19.8 million, including a R6.6 million basic salary, a bonus of R7.8 million, long-term incentives of R4.1 million and other benefits of R1 million and R313,000.

Gore’s incentives were largely based on the handling of Discovery Bank, which is set to launch as South Africa’s next big full service bank in the coming months. He also saw that the group hit its growth targets and ran a profitable business, Discovery said.

Group financial director, Deon Viljoen earned a R10.2 million total package, while CEO of Discovery Life Hylton Kallner was the highest-paid exec with a total package of R29.2 million.

Kallner’s huge payday was due to a R17.6 million LTI payout, which was as a result of the vesting of a three-year LTI scheme.

CEO of Discovery Health, Jonathan Broomberg, took home a package of R12.1 million, while CEO of Discovery Invest, Kenny Rabson, was paid R13.7 million.

Overall, Discovery paid R138.6 million to its executives in South Africa, R84 million to its executives in the UK (GBP4,532,404), and R14 million to its director in the US (USD983,762).

Non-executive directors were paid a total of R17.4 million for the year, equating to an average of R1.6 million per person. Finance minister Tito Mboweni, who was appointed to the Discovery board in 2013, earned R1.3 million.

Discovery published its financial results for the year ended June 2018 in September, reporting a normalised operating profit of R8.3 billion for the period, up 17%.

Headline earnings were up 16% to R5.4 billion, while cash from in-force business was at R10.6 billion.

According to Gore, the core focus of the year was building the group’s Discovery Bank, which gained its key licences from governing bodies, and reached various agreements regarding the bank’s shareholding.

The group said that it is on track to launch the bank to market.

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