DISCOVERY LIMITED - AIA and Discovery announce new joint venture

AIA and Discovery announce new joint venture

DISCOVERY LIMITED
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
(Registration number: 1999/007789/06)
ISIN: ZAE000022331
Share Code: DSY
("Discovery”)


AIA and Discovery announce new joint venture

“AIA Vitality” launched in Singapore; a transformational initiative designed to help
 people live healthier lives

17 July 2013 – AIA Group Limited (“AIA”) and Discovery Limited (“Discovery”) today
announced a strategic joint venture to introduce Discovery’s successful wellness-based life
insurance model to the Asia-Pacific region.

The joint venture, known as "AIA Vitality" was launched today in Singapore, a market that
AIA has operated in for more than 80 years. AIA Vitality will combine AIA’s brand,
distribution and life insurance product leadership with Discovery’s proprietary wellness-
based expertise and experience. The joint venture will offer protection products that are
designed to deliver better health and lower premium rates for AIA's customers. It will tailor
the dynamic approach to the linking of wellness incentives to life and health insurance, first
pioneered by Discovery in South Africa, to the Asia-Pacific region.

In light of the continued rise of non-communicable diseases around the world, including in
the Asia-Pacific region, it is now clear that three lifestyle choices – smoking, poor nutrition,
and poor physical activity – are responsible for more than 50 per cent of all mortality cases.
Discovery’s Vitality wellness programme is the international leader in creating sustained
behavioural change to promote healthier ways of living. Integration of this programme into
the life insurance market has been shown to not only drive improved rates of mortality and
morbidity but also provide a dynamic premium rating system – the combined effect allows
customers to improve their personal health while paying reduced premiums for high quality
insurance.

The roll-out will commence in Singapore, and will offer participants discounts on their
premiums as they achieve their personal health goals over time through maintaining a
healthy lifestyle. In line with Vitality’s proprietary model, the programme is underpinned by a
comprehensive network of well-known health, wellness and rewards partners. The intended
result is a life insurance model which will have immediate financial and health benefits for
participating policyholders, while enhancing sustainable value creation for AIA, and providing
positive long-term benefits for the people, communities and countries in which AIA operates.

Adrian Gore, CEO of Discovery Limited, commented on the partnership with
AIA, “We are tremendously excited to be partnering with one of the world’s largest
and most highly respected insurance groups to bring Vitality and our integrated
approach to wellness and life assurance to the Asia-Pacific region. The new venture
provides a significant opportunity for Discovery to expand our footprint in the high-
growth Asia-Pacific market. There are great synergies between Discovery and AIA in
combining the significant distribution capability, depth of life insurance expertise and
strong brand name of AIA in the Asia-Pacific region with Discovery’s innovation and
proprietary capabilities in wellness. Like elsewhere in the world, the Asia-Pacific
region is fast becoming vulnerable to the impact of chronic diseases of lifestyle; we
have a unique opportunity to help arrest this and positively transform the life
insurance market in the process.”


Commenting on the launch, Mark Tucker, Group Chief Executive Officer and President
of AIA said, “We have very deep roots in the Asia-Pacific region, and we pay close attention
to issues and trends that are influencing the lives our customers. To this end, we are very
pleased to be partnering with Discovery to launch AIA Vitality. This represents a powerful
new means by which we can engage with our customers while helping to address the
important social issue of the need for better health. The launch of AIA Vitality is aligned fully
with AIA’s determination to provide our customers with innovative products and services that
meet their substantial and growing protection and savings needs. We aim through AIA
Vitality to encourage and enable people to lead healthier lives. AIA Vitality represents a
unique opportunity to make a tangible and positive impact on the health of millions of our
customers.”

The investment to be made in AIA Vitality by Discovery is expected to fall within Discovery’s
strategic framework of less than 5% of pre-tax profits for new business development.

Ends

Notes to the editor

About Discovery Limited

Discovery Limited is a South African founded financial services organisation that operates in
the healthcare, life assurance, short-term insurance, savings and investment products and
wellness markets. Founded in 1992 by the current Group Chief Executive Officer Adrian
Gore, Discovery was guided by a clear core purpose – to make people healthier and to
enhance and protect their lives. Underpinning this core purpose was the belief that through
innovation Discovery could be a powerful market disruptor.
The company, which has expanded its operations globally, serves over 6.1 million clients in
South Africa, the UK, USA and China. Its headquarters is in Johannesburg, South Africa and
it is listed among South Africa’s Top 40 companies. Vitality, Discovery’s wellness
programme, is the world’s largest scientific, incentive-based wellness solution. It provides
individual and corporate wellness initiatives in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United
States of America and China. The global Vitality membership base now exceeds 3.4 million
lives.

About AIA Group

AIA Group Limited and its subsidiaries (collectively “AIA” or “the Group”) comprise the
largest independent publicly listed pan-Asian life insurance group. It has operations in 17
markets in Asia-Pacific – wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam,
New Zealand, Macau, Brunei, a 97 per cent subsidiary in Sri Lanka and a 26 per cent joint-
venture in India and a representative office in Myanmar.

The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai over 90 years ago. It is a
market leader in the Asia-Pacific region (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and
holds leading positions across the majority of its markets. It had total assets of US$134,439
million as of 30 November 2012.

AIA meets the savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products
and services including retirement savings plans, life insurance and accident and health
insurance. The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension services to
corporate clients. Through an extensive network of agents and employees across Asia-
Pacific, AIA serves the holders of more than 25 million individual policies and over 13 million
participating members of group insurance schemes.

AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited
under the stock code “1299” with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the
over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: “AAGIY”).

17 July 2013

Sponsor
RAND MERCHANT BANK (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited)
 

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