(Reuters) – South Africa's Naspers said on Monday its full-year profit more than doubled, helped by improved performance from its e-commerce business and contributions from China's Tencent, which accounted for the majority of its profit and sales.
The technology investment company said core earnings per share from continuing operations, a key indicator of its operating performance in South Africa, rose to 1,148 cents in the year to March 31, from a revised 546 cents a year earlier.
Naspers, which has global investments in Amsterdam-listed Prosus, said its integrated e-commerce business achieved profitability in the second half of the year, beating expectations for the first half of 2025.
The company reported consolidated e-commerce profits of $24 million for the full year, and a loss of $435 million.
Consolidated revenue from continuing operations increased 8% to $6.4 billion, with classified advertising and food delivery being the largest contributors, the company said.
Naspers manages Amsterdam-listed Prosus and makes its international investments there.
The firm has investments in Brazilian food delivery companies iFood, Delivery Hero, India's Swiggy, education software companies SkillSoft, Stack Overflow and India-focused payments companies such as PayU.
Prosus also owns a stake in Chinese software and gaming giant Tencent, which reduced its stake to 25% from 26.2% last year to fund an ongoing share buyback program.
Naspers and Prosus argue that the buyback would benefit shareholders because Prosus is valued 30% less than Tencent's shares are worth, at current prices, $98 billion.
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla and Prerna Bedi; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
