Record half-year profit for Discovery, dividend hiked

Discovery posted record first-half earnings as it benefited from years of strategic investment and a swing to profit at its banking division.

Normalised headline earnings jumped 27% to R5.7 billion from R4.4 billion in the six months to 31 December 2025, with growth driven by both its South African and global businesses.

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Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders rose to R5.7 billion from R4.4 billion, while the group’s normalised return on equity improved to 17.4% from 15.4%.

Discovery’s share price firmed around 1% to R260.81 just before 11am on Tuesday.

The board declared an interim gross cash dividend of 111 cents per share, a surge of 28% compared to 87 cents previously.

New business annualised premium income increased 12% to R14 billion. Within the South African business, normalised operating profit rose 19% to R6.8 billion. Discovery Bank reported a normalised operating profit of R75 million for the period, as it continued to scale up.

Client acquisition accelerated to around 1 500 new clients per day, with the broader South African customer base increasing 7% year-on-year to 6.5 million customers.

Discovery Health delivered strong new business growth and recorded 5% growth in normalised profit from operations.

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The Vitality global business reported a 41% jump in normalised operating profit to R2.1 billion, while the group’s embedded value increased to R135.8 billion, representing a 17.3% annualised return on embedded value.

The group has been on an aggressive expansion phase since 2018, investing in South Africa and other countries on the continent, as well as the UK, Europe, Asia, Canada and the US.