Discovery earnings to slow

A non cash charge will weigh on the company’s half-year results.

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Cape Town - South African health and life assurance firm Discovery said on Thursday that it expected headline and basic earnings per share to fall more than 20 percent in the six months to end-December.

This is due to a one-off accounting treatment relating to the lapsing of put options that Prudential held in a UK joint venture.

Discovery said undiluted headline earnings per share and basic earnings per share for the six months would be 117.3 cents and 118.5 cents respectively.

It said normalised headline earnings per share would not be impacted by this.

Discovery said that new business in the year to end-June surged 51 percent to R17.5 billion, boosted by the award of the Bankmed Medical Scheme.

Normalised headline earnings for the year rose 16 percent to R4.03 billion.

ANA