Naspers Key Profit Figure Nearly Doubles, Ecommerce Swings to Profit — Update

By Ian Walker

Naspers said a key profit figure nearly doubled, while its ecommerce business swung to profit six months ahead of target.

The South African investor--which owns a stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings through Prosus--said Monday that core headline earnings from continuing operations rose to $2.1 billion for the year ended March 31 compared with $1.1 billion for the comparable period a year earlier.

Ecommerce profit for the year was $24 million compared with a loss of $436 million.

Net profit, however, fell to $2.855 billion from $4.33 billion, mainly due to a lower gain on the sale of investments during the year.

Group revenue for the year rose to $6.4 billion from $6.0 billion, boosted by strong growth in the classifieds and food delivery segments, Naspers said.

Prosus revenue grew 11% to $5.5 billion while core headline earnings rose 84% to $5.0 billion. Naspers owns 40.1% of Prosus, according to FactSet

"Our strong and flexible balance sheet, active portfolio management and disciplined capital allocation put us in strong position to deliver against our long-term strategy," Prosus and Naspers Chief Financial Officer Basil Sgourdos said.

Naspers said that free cash inflow was $375 million compared with an outflow of $491 million for the comparable period a year earlier. Tencent remains a meaningful contributor to cash flow, it said.

Prosus declared a dividend of 10 European cents a share. Naspers said it plans to declare a dividend as soon as possible.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 24, 2024 03:10 ET (07:10 GMT)

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