Quick look at Discovery results

Discovery released half year numbers yesterday morning, remembering that their trading statement had spooked the market a little earlier in the month -> Discovery Trading update. The numbers themselves at face value look a little unappealing, what they are doing here however is building a bigger global business and on the verge of a bank. What is still most impressive is that when Adrian Gore delivers, he speaks with the same enthusiasm and energy each time.

During the presentation (which we watched on TV here in the office), Gore displayed a couple of new initiatives, one included doctors inside of the network where the appointments could be made by finding one inside of your smartphone map, directions there, notification time of how long you're likely to wait when you get there, magazine suggestions on your smartphone, scripts sent directly to the pharmacy and delivered to your home/work and then lastly, an Uber-like star rating system for the Doc. You could see that he is genuinely excited about these products and innovations, I suspect that their core clientele will be receptive to this technology. Talking of which, their relationship with Apple and the Apple watch is pretty impressive, so far they have sold 170 thousand units, and as it is linked to the Discovery credit card, that definitely helps their business.

The company has been great at cross selling, selling you insurance, both life and short term if you are a medical aid customer, selling you investment products, they are simply great at getting you into their ecosystem. I for one know that their products are more expensive, Adrian Gore did say that they do not compete on price. It is about the quality of the product. We will have another closer look today and release a comprehensive look on Monday. For the time being we think that this current share price weakness represents a big opportunity, the business is in growth mode and is investing heavily in the future.