{"id":872119,"date":"2026-08-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872119"},"modified":"2026-08-26T11:56:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:56:20","slug":"discovery-scores-big-after-spending-r4-billion-to-buy-its-head-office-with-its-own-woolworths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/872119\/discovery-scores-big-after-spending-r4-billion-to-buy-its-head-office-with-its-own-woolworths\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovery scores big after spending R4 billion to buy its head office with its own Woolworths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Discovery is expecting a massive rise in its earnings for the financial year ending 30 June 2026, with headline earnings benefiting from the expiry of its lease at its Sandton office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Discovery announced it would buy its own head office building, 1 Discovery Place, in Sandton, in a R4 billion deal funded by debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery moved to its current offices in 2018 and believes that it will be there for over seven years when its current lease agreement ends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massive office space has several amenities, including its own Woolworths Food Store, a Seattle Coffee, Home Affairs Services, a gym and a rooftop terrace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current owners, Growthpoint Properties, said the move lowers its office exposure and lowers single-tenant asset concentration in the Sandton node, with the REIT increasingly targeting the Western Cape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a trading statement for the year ended June 2026, Discovery said that its normalised profit from operations is expected to increase by between 15% and 20%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery South Africa is expected to grow by 13% to 18%, and the Vitality composite by 18% to 23%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normalised headline earnings are expected to rise by 18% to 23%, driven by lower finance costs, in line with the group’s planned reduction in financial leverage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings are expected to increase by<\/strong> between 31% and 36%, following the gain on termination of the lease at 1 Discovery Place. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earnings per share will thus rise by between 35% and 40% to 1893.0 cents and 1963.1 cents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings per share are expected to rise by between 31% and 36% to between 1895.6 cents and 1967.9 cents<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normalised headline earnings per share are expected to rise by between 18% and 23% to a range between 1735.1 cents and 1808.6 cents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exact details on Discovery’s results will be available when Discovery reports its results for the year, which are expected to be released on 3 September 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Response to the trading statement has seen the group’s share price rise by over 3% since the start of trade today, 26 August, valuing the company at around R175 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery Earnings<\/strong><\/td>Expected Increase<\/strong><\/td>Expected Range (cents)<\/strong><\/td>Prior Year Reported (cents)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Earnings per share <\/td>35% to 40%<\/td>1893.0 to 1963.1<\/td>1402.2<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share <\/td>31% to 36%<\/td>1895.6 to 1967.9<\/td>1447.0<\/td><\/tr>
Normalised HEPS <\/td>18% to 23%<\/td>1735.1 to 1808.6<\/td>1470.4<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Images of 1 Discovery Place <\/h2>\n\n\n
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Source: Remax One<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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Discovery expects a massive rise in headline earnings after cancelling its head office lease in favour of buying it outright for R4 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":812773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2092537805268201919","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2187063415447391","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[4883],"class_list":["post-872119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872119","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=872119"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872168,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872119\/revisions\/872168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}