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Naspers and Prosus said they expected full-year headline profit to rise, thanks in part to “improved profitability” in their e-commerce businesses.
Naspers owns a majority stake in consumer internet subsidiary Prosus, which accounts for almost all of the company's revenue. Prosus also has a stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent, as well as investments in online advertising, food delivery, payments, fintech and education technology. It also has stakes in companies such as Brazil's iFood and India's PayU and Swiggy.
The group had set a goal of turning its e-commerce business, which has been posting large operating losses, into a consolidated profitable business in the first half of fiscal 2025. But it later announced it would bring this forward to the end of March 2024.
“We are on track to deliver on the profitability and cash flow generation promise of our combined e-commerce business,” Naspers said in a trading statement on Tuesday.
“These factors, combined with improving profitability from investments and the continuation of our share repurchase program, supported strong core earnings per share growth.”
Naspers owns about 25% of Tencent, which last month reported a 62% rise in net profit thanks to a surge in advertising revenue. The group has been reducing its stake in Tencent in recent months and using the proceeds to buy back its own shares.
Naspers now expects core earnings per share from continuing operations, excluding certain non-operating items, to more than double (107% to 113%) in the 12 months to the end of March, boosted by improved profitability from its e-commerce business and Tencent, as well as higher net interest income.
Over the past year, Prosus has sold or closed all of its OLX Autos businesses, which have been presented as discontinued operations.
Last month, Fabricio Broisi, 47, was appointed the new CEO of Naspers & Prosus, replacing Bob van Dijk, who resigned in September. Broisi was previously head of the group's iFood business.
Naspers shares have risen about 40% so far this year.
News24 is part of Naspers-owned Media24.
