Naspers revenue up 20%, but profits hurt
November 25, 2019
By Chris Forrester
South Africa conglomerate Naspers has reported half-year revenues up 20 per cent to $10.2 billion (€9.2bn).
The company, which is one of the largest technology investors in the world, told shareholders that its half-year profits had fallen by 48 per cent and not helped by a reduction in the value of Chinese on-line site Tencent (Naspers owns 31 per cent of Tencent).
“The progress of our core segments, which are growing fast and scaling well, gives us confidence in our ability to continue identifying opportunities to unlock significant value,” its statement said.
Trading profit grew 9 per cent to $1.9 billion; and core headline earnings grew 10 per cent to $1.7 billion.
Earlier this year Naspers spun off many of its on-line and media assets, including Multichoice, into a new business Prosus which is listed separately on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Naspers retains 73 per cent of Prosus.
Apart from its 31 per cent stake in China’s biggest online platform Tencent, Prosus owns shares in the global online selling platform OLX, Indian online food-delivery business Swiggy, Indian online travel site MakeMyTrip, the biggest online classifieds and property platform in Russia, Avito, and Russia’s biggest internet company mail.ru. In South Africa, it owns AutoTrader and Property24.
Prosus, which also announced its interim results on November 22nd, showed revenues increased 20 per cent to $9.9 billion, trading profit growing 7 per cent to $1.9 billion and core headline earnings growing 10 percent to $1.7 billion.