{"id":837331,"date":"2025-09-11T08:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=837331"},"modified":"2025-09-11T09:02:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:02:32","slug":"discovery-is-crushing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/837331\/discovery-is-crushing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery is crushing it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Discovery has seen a massive jump in earnings for the year ended 30 June 2025, with the group\u2019s banking division becoming profitable for the first time over an extended period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that its headline earnings and normalised headline earnings both increased by 30% to R9,625 million and R9,781 million, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This resulted in the normalised return on equity increasing to 15.4%, from 13.5% in the prior year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also delivered a strong performance in an environment characterised by increased geopolitical complexities and uncertainty around global policy shifts and trade tensions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the year under review, economic growth was below potential in many regions where the group operates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, interest rate reductions provided a better backdrop for investment markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risks remained elevated; however, it said that the acceleration of technological and demographic trends underpinned its shared-value model and unique data, positioning it for future growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiscovery has emerged strongly from its cycle of significant investment, which focused on creating new avenues for long-term growth,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has positioned the Group for a new distinct phase of scaled organic growth, with focused execution through its recently formed global composite, Vitality, and its domestic business, Discovery South Africa.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the group\u2019s basic earnings per share rose by 26% to 1,402.2 cents, while its headline earnings per share increased by 30% to 1,447 cents.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group declared a final dividend of 152 cents per share, adding to the 87 cents per share seen in the first half of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Discovery Bank sees strong growth <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Discovery South Africa saw 22% growth in normalised profit from operations over the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/strong>Excellent levels of customer engagement drove strong claims experience and retention across the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA resulting increased Vitality benefit utilisation, and successful launch of the new HealthyFood partner, added to various additional one-off costs at the centre, both of which are expected to ameliorate in FY2026.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery Bank continued to see high-quality growth, with the total number of clients increasing by 30%. Advances rose by 39%, while deposits increased by 26%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This resulted in strong revenue growth, and the bank saw its first profitable period during the second half of the financial year, which was ahead of plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the full financial year, the bank still declared a R68 million loss, but this was an 85% improvement from the previous financial year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery Health\u2019s operating profit increased by 7%, with further investment in technology, innovation, and AI expected to drive continued innovation in the shared-value model and deepen efficiencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery Life\u2019s normalised operating profit increased 14%, which was mainly driven by an exceptional claims experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery Invest delivered a 29% increase in normalised operating profit following strong growth in the value of assets under management and certain one-off benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery Insure also successfully executed pricing and claims management initiatives, which, combined with good weather conditions, resulted in a significant improvement in the claims ratio and a 229% increase in operating profits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking internationally, the Vitality business saw a massive 70% rise in normalised profit to R3.2 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that the rise in earnings reflects progress made in restructuring all the global operations into a focused single business, as well as strong growth in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Discovery has seen a massive rise in profit, with Discovery Bank seeing its first profitable period in 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":646263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4883,14807],"class_list":["post-837331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-discovery","tag-vitality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837341,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837331\/revisions\/837341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}