Discovery execs sold shares worth R56 million

Discovery informed shareholders today that 11 of the company’s directors had sold shares worth R55.93 million over the past few days.

According to a SENS announcement released this morning, the Discovery directors included the company’s CEO, Discovery Health CEO, Discovery Bank CEO and the company’s CFO.

Discovery said the vesting and sale transactions occurred in terms of various employee share incentive plans. 

It said all sale transactions occurred on-market following vesting and all deliveries of awards occurred off-market.

The transactions took place between 30 September and 4 October.

The shares were sold at a volume-weighted average price of R135.35 – high R136.21 and low R134.21.

Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner sold the largest number of shares at 126,598 with a value of R17.13 million.

The company recently reported strong results for the year ended 30 June 2023.

Discovery posted an increase in normalised profit from operations, up 24% from R9.38 billion to R11.66 billion.

Headline earnings increased by 5% to R5.49 billion, normalised headline earnings increased by 32% to R7.68 billion, and core new business annual premium income rose 12% to R22.79 billion. 

On the back of these strong results, the company also resumed its dividend payments to shareholders, and the directors declared a final gross cash dividend of 110 cents per ordinary share.

Discovery shares sold by directors

Name	Value of sale transaction
Adrian Gore	R9,691,601
Ayanda Ntsaluba	R5,716,101
Barry Swartzberg	R3,099,786
Deon Viljoen	R3,441,003
Fareed Chothia	R1,917,639
Hylton Kallner	R17,135,039
Kenny Rabson	R3,701,281
Nonkululeko Pitje	R1,258,078
Riaan van Reenen	R2,961,187
Ryan Noach	R5,819,103
Stuart Cohen	R1,192,704
Total	R55,933,522