New era for Discovery begins with a bang

Discovery has kicked off its new growth phase on the front foot, with the company’s first annual results in the new era showing strong growth across the board. 

The financial services giant has emerged from a cycle of significant investment in new businesses, particularly its bank, to create new avenues for growth. 

This phase is set to be characterised by significantly stronger cash generation, increased profitability, and reduced reliance of its various businesses on the group’s centre. 

In effect, many of its new businesses, specifically the bank, will become self-funding as part of this new growth phase and will require much less capital from a group level to grow.

Discovery’s first full set of annual results in this new era showed a 30% increase in full-year profit, as it achieved strong growth across its operations.

Its profit for the year rose to R9.5 billion in the year ended June 30, up from R7.5 billion a year earlier.

This performance was largely driven by a standout year for Discovery’s international businesses, housed under the Vitality composite. 

Vitality composite, which includes the United Kingdom and Global businesses, grew its normalised profit by 70% year-on-year to R3.2 billion. 

Discovery South Africa delivered 22% growth in normalised profit from operations, reflecting a strong contribution from each business in the company’s home market. 

The home market remains dominant for Discovery, generating R12 billion of its R15.2 billion in normalised profit for the year. 

This performance was driven by an exceptional year for Discovery Insure, the company’s short-term insurance business, which saw its normalised profit rise by 229% year-on-year to R817 million. 

Discovery Bank narrowed its loss by 85% to R68 million and crucially reached sustained profitability during the second half of the financial year. This compares to a R454 million loss in the previous financial year. 

The bank reached monthly break-even at the end of the first half and generated its first profitable period during the second half of the financial year, ahead of plan. Its total client base grew 30% to June 2025, reaching 1,400 daily sales in June.  

Its two biggest business units, Discovery Health and Discovery Life, saw their normalised profit rise by 7% and 14% respectively. 

These two units contribute the vast majority of Discovery’s earnings, providing R9.7 billion of the R15.2 billion in normalised profit from operations. 

Discovery Invest also posted a strong performance, with normalised profit rising by 29% year-on-year to R1.9 billion. This was driven mainly by the sustained performance of global equity markets and the JSE. 

As a result of this strong performance, Discovery declared a final dividend of 201 cents per share.