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DISCOVERY LIMITED - Voluntary announcement regarding Discoverys proposed increased participation in DiscoveryCard to 74.99%

Release Date: 10/03/2015 13:20
Code(s): DSY     PDF:  
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Voluntary announcement regarding Discovery’s proposed increased participation in DiscoveryCard to 74.99%

DISCOVERY LIMITED  
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa) 
(Registration number 1999/007789/06) 
JSE share code: DSY  
ISIN: ZAE000022331 
(“Discovery” or “the Company”) 
 
Voluntary announcement regarding Discovery’s proposed increased participation in DiscoveryCard to 
74.99% (“the Transaction”)  
 
1. Introduction 

Discovery shareholders are referred to the announcements released on the Stock Exchange News Service 
(“SENS”) on 24 February 2015, relating to the unaudited interim results and cash dividend declaration for the 
six months ended 31 December 2014 and the intention to undertake an underwritten renounceable rights 
issue to qualifying Discovery shareholders (“Rights Issue”), and to today’s “Rights Issue Finalisation 
Announcement”.  
 
As communicated in these announcements, a portion of the Rights Issue proceeds will be used to fund growth 
in adjacent financial services markets in South Africa. Discovery has an excellent track record in expanding its 
behavioural insurance offering both locally and globally. This shared value model is underpinned by Vitality – 
Discovery’s world-leading behavioural-based wellness programme. Vitality provides Discovery with a unique 
and powerful data asset of wellness, lifestyle and consumer behaviour which offers insight into member risk 
profiles and enables better underwriting beyond what can be derived from purely financial behaviour.  
 
2. Background to DiscoveryCard 
 
The DiscoveryCard was established in 2004 by Discovery and First National Bank (A division of FirstRand Bank 
Limited) (“FNB”). The establishment of DiscoveryCard was predicated on Discovery’s ability to offer a 
differentiated, relevant value proposition based on Vitality and Discovery’s behaviour-linked model, combined 
with FNB’s credit card and operational expertise. The business model was constructed with Discovery receiving 
the revenue required to fund the integrated behavioural incentives and Discovery sharing in 20% of the 
underlying DiscoveryCard profit.  
 
DiscoveryCard has grown its customer base to over 250,000 primary cardholders with 315,000 cards in issue. 
Net advances of DiscoveryCard totalled R3.4 billion as at 31 December 2014. The DiscoveryCard customer base 
is a profitable and unique asset, and sits in the mid-income, mass affluent and affluent segment of the credit 
card market, which constitutes 93% of the industry’s profit pool. 
 
The DiscoveryCard made a profit of approximately R300 million before tax for the financial year to 30 June 
2014. 
 
3. The Transaction 
      
Discovery’s unique behaviour-based insurance model is applicable to the broader financial services industry. 
The success of the DiscoveryCard is clear evidence of this. 
 
In order to broaden its financial services offering, Discovery has entered into a memorandum of understanding 
with FirstRand Limited (“FirstRand”) to increase Discovery’s participation in the DiscoveryCard to 74.99%, with 
FirstRand retaining 25.01%. As consideration for its increased participation, Discovery will make a cash 
payment to FirstRand for R1.35 billion on 1 July 2015. It is intended that in time, this arrangement will be 
expanded to a broader product suite with the same profit share. In addition, Discovery will contribute 100% of 
an additional R800 million investment which will likely be required to develop and enhance this financial 
services platform. 
 
DiscoveryCard will continue to operate on the FirstRand Bank banking licence and systems and FirstRand Bank 
will continue to provide funding to DiscoveryCard.  
      
4. Funding of the Transaction 

Discovery will fund the Transaction through a portion of the proceeds of the Rights Issue. 
 
5. Conditions precedent 

The Transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.  
 
6. Categorisation of the Transaction 

The Transaction consideration represents less than 5% of Discovery’s market capitalisation and is not a 
categorised transaction in terms of the Listings Requirements of the JSE Limited. This announcement is 
therefore voluntary. 
 
 
Johannesburg 
10 March 2015 
 
Financial adviser to Discovery 
Deutsche Bank  
 
Sponsor to Discovery 
RAND MERCHANT BANK (A division of FirstRand Bank Limited) 
 
South African legal counsel to Discovery 
ENSafrica 
 

Date: 10/03/2015 01:20:00 Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited ('JSE'). 
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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,
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