Naspers said its 15% revenue growth was more than double that of its peers and core headline earnings more than doubled, increasing 112%, due to improved e-commerce and profitability at its China investment in Tencent.
The group, which has Europe-based internet group Prosus as a subsidiary, said on Wednesday’s results for the six months to September 30 that the fundamentals of its e-commerce businesses were improving.
The meaningful improvement in profitability had enabled the group to bring forward its Prosus e-commerce profitability target by six months, to the second half of the 2024 financial year.
Naspers’s consolidated e-commerce trading loss came to only $38 million (R730), representing a 9% margin improvement year-on-year. Consolidated e-commerce revenue came to $2.9 billion.
Cash flow increased eight times year-on-year to $677m. The balance sheet was strong with cash of $15.1bn.
The removal of the cross-holding agreement between Prosus and Naspers was completed in September 2023, to simplify the group structure.
BUSINESS REPORT