Discovery posts healthy profits

Johannesburg - Health insurer Discovery Holdings [JSE:DSY] on Thursday reported a 32% increase in its operating profit to R2.838bn for the year ended June 30 2011.

Normalised headline earnings per share increased by 31% to 365.8 cents, with the group's embedded value per share growing 19% to R48.45.

Gross inflows under management grew by 21% to over R50bn.

"Discovery performed strongly during the past financial year," said Discovery CEO Adrian Gore.

"Despite economic uncertainty, considerable policy debates and volatile markets both locally and internationally, the year under review was a seminal one for Discovery - it achieved considerable success in the context of growth, innovation and quality across virtually all areas of the business," said Gore.

"Not only did Discovery's businesses perform better than expected, but it also made significant progress in furthering the development of the Vitality framework and its alternate applications locally, and in translating Discovery's business model into a 'repeatable' construct that underpins its expansion into new markets."