Naspers takes bigger bite into India
Indian e-commerce site Flipkart.com is reported to have raised $200 million from four of its existing investors, including JSE-listed media and Internet player Naspers.
In early trade on the JSE on Thursday, shares in Naspers surged to record highs, adding R15.67, or 2.07% to R773.51, giving the group a market cap of R321.64 billion. It reached an intraday best level of R784.25.
Naspers announced in its provisional report for the year ended March 2013, that in August 2012 it acquired a 10% interest in Flipkart for R858 million in cash, following the completion of a 4th round of $150 million funding from MIH – part of Naspers Group – and Iconiq Capital.
Naspers says that Bangalore-based Flipkart.com is the biggest e-commerce destination in India.
With in excess of two million registered users in 2012, Flipkart claims to sell nearly 20 products per minute and is aiming at generating a revenue of Rs50 billion (US$1 billion) by 2014.
In full-year results for 2012/2013 the group said it aimed to cross the $100 million mark.
Only last month, Naspers picked up Indian online ticketing company RedBus through subsidiary Ibibo Group for an amount believed to be between $100 million – $140 million.
The fifth and latest round of investment came from hedge fund Tiger Global Management, Accel Partners, and investment adviser Iconiq Capital.
It is believed that Naspers is the only investor with a strategic interest in Flipkart, as apposed to a financial one.
Flipkart is an online shopping site, founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal who both previously worked for Amazon.com.
Last month Naspers reported a 27% rise in consolidated revenues, to R50.2 billion for the year ended March 2013.
Growth came from organic expansion of existing businesses and acquisitions, supplemented by the depreciation of the rand.
In the aggregate, managed Internet revenues expanded 80% to R34,6 billion. Trading profits from the internet segment were 44% higher at R6.2 billion.
On e-commerce, Naspers said: “We believe online shopping is a global consumer trend and anticipate that affordable tablets and smartphones will accelerate the uptake of services in our markets.”
The group said e-commerce revenues doubled to R11.4 billion, through a combination of organic growth and a few acquisitions.
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