The future looks bright for Naspers

Naspers Limited has announced its results for the six months ended 30 September 2019.

Group highlights for the period:

• Revenues increased 20% to US$10.2bn (HY19: US$9.1bn).
• Trading profit grew 9% to US$1.9bn (HY19: US$1.8bn).
• Core headline earnings grew 10% to US$1.7bn (HY19: US$1.5bn).
• Successful listing of Naspers’s international internet assets on Euronext Amsterdam as Prosus: creating Europe’s largest listed consumer internet company by asset value; giving global internet investors direct access to an attractive portfolio of international consumer internet businesses; unlocking ~US$10bn of value for shareholders.
• Prosus has a secondary listing on the JSE and is ~74% owned by Naspers, with a free float of ~26%.
• Effectively 100% of revenues and profits now coming from online businesses.
• Continued to drive growth in ecommerce: overall ecommerce revenues increased 27% to US$2.1bn; core Classifieds and Payments and Fintech segments profitable; and  Food Delivery segment grew orders 110% and revenues by 69%.
• Continued to invest in longer term growth:
  Payments and Fintech: invested US$66m in Wibmo (India) and US$45m in Red Dot Payments (Asia);
  Classifieds: US$56m cash and equity with Carousell (South-east Asia); and
  after the end of the period, Prosus announced an offer to acquire Just Eat, a leading, global Food Delivery business.
• Continued to back future growth prospects with Ventures investments in Meesho (US$80m) and Brainly (US$25m).
• Realised a gain of US$599m, following the exchange of our 42.53% interest in MakeMyTrip Limited for a 5.6% effective interest in Ctrip.
• Strong balance sheet with net cash of US$5.9bn to pursue growth.

“We executed well during the first six months of the year, growing revenue 20% to US$10.2bn, and trading profit 9% to US$1.9bn,” says Basil Sgourdos, group chief financial officer.

“We end the period with a strong net cash position of US$5.9bn, which positions us well to pursue further growth.”