Growing footprint of Discovery Bank contributes to Discovery's strong half year results

The Discovery Group has reported a 'strong' operating performance for the half year ended 31 December 2023.

Presenting its results on Wednesday, the Group also reported Discovery Bank had reached its monthly operational break-even ahead of the target date.

Discovery's normalised operating profits were up 13% to R5 622 million.

Headline earnings were largely unchanged at R3 260 million, while normalised headline earnings increased 11% to R3 320 million.

The Group declared its interim ordinary dividends for the period at 65 cents per share.

In South Africa, normalised operating profit rose by 9% to R4 355 million and new business by 29% to R11 100 million.

The company stable comprises Discovery Health, Discovery Bank, Discovery Life, Discovery Invest and Discovery Insure.

Ray White (in for Bruce Whitfield) interviews Group CEO Adrian Gore on The Money Show.

While it has been a very complex time over the past 18 months says Gore, they are very happy with their half year results.

He singles out the performance of the Vitality Global stable and the growth of Discovery Bank, which reached an operational break-even.

"The way the bank is rolling out, we just need to keep doing what we're doing."

"We're getting 1 000 quality clients a day coming in... If the growth continues like it is, the Bank's scale will be reached very quickly."

Adrian Gore, Founder and Group CEO - Discovery Limited