Senior management of Discovery realized shares totaling almost 118 million rand after long-term rewards were activated at the end of September. Among the sellers were CEO Adrian Gore, who sold shares worth about 20 million rand, and CEO of Discovery Bank, Hilton Callner, who sold nearly 48 million rand.
The financial group disclosed this information in a stock exchange announcement, specifying that the shares were activated on September 30 as part of the Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) and the BEE Employee Share Trust. Participants were offered several options upon reward activation: they could retain all shares and cover the tax liability themselves, sell enough shares to cover the tax, or simply sell their activated shares.
Nine executives collectively sold 450,224 Discovery shares between September 23 and 30 at a weighted average price of 261.939 rand per share, generating 117.9 million rand. Callner made the largest transaction, selling 182,508 shares worth 47.8 million rand. The announcement simply stated that these were sold shares, without explaining the reasons for the sale.
Gore sold 75,084 shares worth 19.7 million rand, and CEO of Discovery Invest, Kenny Robson, sold 63,962 shares worth 16.8 million rand. Similar to Callner's case, Discovery did not state that these transactions were made to cover tax liabilities.
CEO of Discovery Life, Rian van Reenen, sold 52,226 shares worth 13.7 million rand.
IOL BUSINESS
Five other executives sold shares specifically to cover tax liabilities arising from the activation of their rewards. Discovery co-founder Barry Swartzenberg sold 25,590 shares worth 6.7 million rand, and CFO Dion Viljoen sold 26,020 shares worth 6.8 million rand.
CEO of Discovery Corporate & Employee Benefits, Nonkululeko Pitje, sold 13,177 shares worth 3.45 million rand, while executives Stuart Cohen sold 8,594 shares worth 2.25 million rand, and Ayanda Seba disposed of 3,063 shares worth just over 802,000 rand. In total, transactions explicitly designated as tax payments amounted to approximately 20 million rand.
The remaining sales, estimated at around 97.9 million rand, were not related to tax liabilities in the Discovery announcement. These transactions followed the activation of rewards granted to executives in previous years and do not represent recently awarded shares.
It is also worth noting that the Discovery LTIP Trust acquired over two million shares from participants who chose to sell their activated shares. This over-the-counter deal included 2,045,458 shares worth 535.5 million rand and was conducted to determine the fund's net share position for future LTIP obligations.