Discovery Bank making it rain

Discovery Bank posted a profit of R75 million in the six months to 31 December 2025, with this being the first reported profit for the bank. 

This marks a significant milestone in the bank’s journey and that of the broader Discovery Group, with it well into its new phase of growth. 

Discovery aims to grow its normalised profit between 15% and 20% from 2025 through 2029, nearly doubling the size of the company, while reducing expenditure on new businesses as they become profitable. 

So far, in the previous full financial year and its latest interim results, Discovery has exceeded these targets, with many of its business units tracking ahead of plan. 

Most notable among these is its bank, which continues to go from strength to strength. In its latest interim results, Discovery Bank grew its normalised profit by R220 million, bringing it to a positive R75 million for the six months. 

This was coupled with a 28% growth in the bank’s client base, with its growth accelerating to 1,500 new clients onboarded per day for the last six months of 2025. 

Non-interest revenue increased 39%, driven by client growth and higher product take-up and engagement. Unusually for a bank, its non-interest revenue is greater than that generated by typical banking activities, such as lending. 

This makes the bank less sensitive to shifts in interest rates, resulting in its earnings being considered higher-quality than some of its peers. 

Crucially, with the bank now being profitable, Discovery no longer has to fund it aggressively, freeing up billions in cash flow. CEO Adrian Gore previously described this to Daily Investor as the bank “throwing out cash”.

The bank’s performance underpinned a strong showing by Discovery’s South African composite, which includes its medical aid, life, invest, and insure businesses. 

This composite grew normalised profit by 19% to R6.8 billion, with new business volumes growing by 10%. 

In particular, Discovery’s life insurance business posted a strong performance, with its normalised profit growing by 15% to R3 billion. 

Discovery Insure also posted strong growth in profit of 34%, although this business unit is relatively small in comparison to the others. 

While the South African composite remains the dominant force within Discovery, the company’s global business continues to shine. 

The Vitality composite, which includes Discovery’s operations in the United Kingdom, its investment in Chinese giant Ping An, and the Vitality Network, grew its normalised profit by 41% to R2.1 billion. 

This was largely driven by a surge in profitability from the UK business and Ping An in China. Vitality now covers 11.2 million lives outside of China. 

These sprawling businesses have been successfully restructured into a single, focused business through a regionalised operating model that can effectively deploy its capabilities. 

The greater focus this new initiative has driven a skyrocketing in profit from Discovery’s UK operations, which saw its operating profit surge by 97% to R1.2 billion. 

The business is tracking ahead of the run rate required to achieve its 7.5% margin guidance for the current financial year, driven by effective pricing, a stable claims environment and particularly strong claims and expense management. 

Discovery’s share of Ping An’s after-tax operating profit increased by 35% to R573 million for the last six months of 2025. 

The strong operational result was delivered by disciplined cost control, regulatory-driven reductions in distribution costs, and stable retention. A surge in the Shanghai Stock Exchange helped boost returns.

Overall, the strong performance of Discovery’s operating units resulted in it posting R5.8 billion in profit for the six months, up 22% year-on-year, and earnings per share of 846 cents, up 28% year-on-year. 

Discovery’s strong performance allowed it to declare an interim dividend of 111 cents per share, which is up 28% year-on-year.