By South African financial services group Discovery said on Wednesday it expects headline earnings per share to rise by between 31% and 36% for the year ended June 30, 2026, according to a trading statement filed with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
The forecast builds on a strong prior-year base, with headline earnings reaching 9.6 billion rand in the 2025 financial year, itself a 30% increase from the previous year, the company said.
Discovery, which offers health, life and short-term insurance as well as banking products, said normalised profit for the 2026 financial year is expected to climb between 15% and 20% year-on-year.
The projected earnings growth outpaces the company’s own medium-term target of 15% annual growth through 2029, a rate management has said would effectively double the size of the business.
The trading statement said the improved performance was being driven by gains across Discovery’s operating divisions. Discovery South Africa’s profit is expected to rise by more than 13%, while Vitality Global, the group’s international wellness and insurance arm, is forecast to grow profit by more than 18%.
Discovery Bank, the group’s digital banking unit, is set to report its first profitable half-year period, posting earnings of 75 million rand at the interim stage, according to the company.
Discovery attributed part of the earnings boost to lower finance costs, which it linked to a planned reduction in debt.
Chief Executive Officer Adrian Gore said sustaining the current pace of growth would be difficult but achievable, noting that the company’s compounding growth strategy has accelerated in recent years.
“In the past two years we have grown by more than we did in the decade prior,” Gore said, according to comments the company shared previously with financial news outlet Daily Investor.
Gore said Discovery’s approach was built around long-term planning rather than short-term financial engineering, describing the company as an operator rather than a trader that does not chase quick gains at the expense of sustainability.
Discovery, founded in 1992 by Gore and listed on the JSE, has expanded from its original South African health insurance business into a diversified group spanning life insurance, banking, and wellness programs marketed internationally through its Vitality brand.
The company generated more than 70 billion rand in revenue and 6.6 billion rand in profit in its 2023 financial year, according to the trading statement, underscoring the scale of the growth targets management has set for the years ahead.
Discovery is scheduled to publish its full financial results for the year ended June 30, 2026, on September 3, the company said.
Wednesday’s statement marks the first time Discovery Bank has reported a profit over a half-year reporting period, according to the company.
Discovery’s insurance and wellness businesses operate in South Africa and abroad, licensing its Vitality behavioral-health model to insurers in other markets.
