DSY - Discovery Holdings Limited - Trading Statement

DSY - Discovery Holdings Limited - Trading Statement                            
DISCOVERY HOLDINGS LIMITED                                                      
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)                                  
(Registration number: 1999/007789/06)                                           
ISIN: ZAE000022331                                                              
Share Code: DSY                                                                 
("Discovery" or "the Company")                                                  
TRADING STATEMENT                                                               
Discovery is currently finalising its results for the 6 months ended            
31 December 2010 ("the period"), which will be released on 22 February 2011.    
Normalised Headline Earnings per share, which excludes the effects of the       
acquisition of Standard Life Healthcare and realised gains on available-for-sale
financial instruments, is expected to be between 20% and 30% higher than the    
corresponding reporting period of the previous year. Management is of the view  
that this best represents the operating results for the period.                 
Shareholders are referred to the announcement of 11 May 2010 wherein Discovery  
announced its acquisition of the entire share capital of Standard Life          
Healthcare, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Standard Life Group, for R1.56bn   
(GBP138m), as well as the related increase in shareholding in Prudential Health 
Holdings Ltd ("PHHL"), the holding company of PruHealth and PruProtect, the     
joint ventures between Discovery and Prudential Assurance Company ("Prudential")
of the United Kingdom("the Transaction").                                       
Applying the requirements of IFRS3: Business Combinations to the Transaction    
results in several large impacts in the income statement of the Company,        
including the recording of a substantial profit on the increase in Discovery`s  
shareholding in PHHL from 50% to 75%. Full details of these impacts will be     
provided with the results.                                                      
In order to assist in understanding the results for the period, Discovery       
intends providing an indication of Normalised Headline Earnings. Normalised     
Headline Earnings is defined as Earnings excluding the impact of the Transaction
and excluding realised gains on available-for-sale financial instruments.       
Headline Earnings per share which includes some, but not all, of the impacts of 
the Transaction and excludes realised gains, is expected to be between 10% and  
20% lower than the corresponding reporting period of the previous year.         
Earnings per share which includes all of the impacts of the Transaction and     
realised gains, is expected to be between 65% and 75% higher than the           
corresponding reporting period of the previous year.                            
The financial information on which this trading statement is based has not been 
reviewed and reported on by the Company`s external auditors.                    
Sandton                                                                         
16 February 2011                                                                
Sponsor                                                                         
RAND MERCHANT BANK (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited)                       
Date: 16/02/2011 16:43:01 Supplied by www.sharenet.co.za                     
Produced by the JSE SENS Department.                  
The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the    
JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or            
implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or   
completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers,     
employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct,     
indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature,     
howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,          
information disseminated through SENS.