“A positive election outcome towards the end of the reporting period, following the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), resulted in a significant shift in confidence, with some immediate relief in market indicators,” Adrian Gore, the founder and CEO of Discovery, said, delivering the group’s annual results to end June 2024.
At a group level, Discovery delivered increases in normalised operating profit (up 17% to R11.6 billion), headline earnings (up 7% to R7.2bn), normalised headline earnings (up 15% to R7.3bn), and core new business annual premium income (up 18% to R26.67bn).
Gore said: “The full-year reporting period continued to be characterised by complexities in the macroeconomic environment, including heightened consumer pressure due to cumulative interest rate increases, constrained economic growth and political uncertainties on many fronts. Within this context, Discovery remained focused on delivering strong growth in earnings, value, cash generation and capital resilience.”
Gore said the group had entered a new distinct phase of capitalising on its long-term investment and growth strategy, and was now well positioned for sustained growth through two powerful and focused structures: Discovery SA and Vitality Limited.
Read Discovery results in Business Report print tomorrow in The Star, Mercury and Cape Times.
Meanwhile, speaking at Discovery Day earlier this week, Gore said South Africa had come a long way in just one year,
On the government-business partnership, he said it was remarkable what had been achieved. The partnership targeted three areas: Energy, transport and crime and corruption.
“I think the signature issue, of course, is that load shedding has largely disappeared. Hopefully it stays that way. But it's remarkable... Transport logistics has been real clarity of focus. We've kind of bottomed out. I believe, in this clarity of what needs to get done, there’s been a raft of regulations and laws that have been changed. And critically in crime and corruption, a lot of progress been made. That’s a very tough nut to crack,” he said. South Africa also needed to get off the grey list.
Gore said the work being done between business and government was amazing and showed what South Africans could do.
Despite load shedding, South Africa’s gross domestic product had not actually shrunk, which showed that the economy “is much more resilient than we think”.
South Africa was the gateway to Africa. He said if the country continued to grow and the content grew, there was great potential for economic growth
“I do believe in your good faith, good leadership and the kind of engagement to make sure that we capitalise on this opportunity,” he said.
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