Finance

Good times for Naspers

Luke Fraser

 ·18 Nov 2024

Naspers, the owner of Takealot, Media24 and more, expects a big jump in its earnings.

In a trading statement for the period ended 30 September 2024, the group said that it demonstrated its continued commitment to deliver profitable growth, with consolidated e-commerce profit in the first half of FY25 far exceeding the prior 12 months.

The group said that it expects to continue this growth path by investing with an AI-first mindset and leveraging the group’s technology expertise.
Core headline earnings per share and headline earnings per share for continuing operations for the period are expected to jump between 87.2%-93.8% and 103.2%-109.6%, respectively.

The group said that both sets of earnings were driven by accelerated growth and improved profitability of its consolidated e-commerce businesses and equity-accounted investments, especially Tencent.

Tencent is the largest video game company in the world, and much of Nasper’s value is tied to the Chinese-based Tencent. Naspers bought a 46.5% stake in Tencent for $32 million in 2001. Tencent is now worth roughly R8 trillion.

Earnings per share are also expected to increase during the period, mainly from the group’s improved overall profitability as well as the lower impairment charges in continuing operations compared to the prior period.

That said, the improved performance was partially offset by a lower gain from the sale of its Tencent shareholding compared to the previous period, given that fewer shares were sold in the current period.

The gains regarding sell down of Tencent and impairment charges impacting earnings per share are excluded from headline and core headline earnings per share.

The board considers core headline earnings an appropriate indicator of the operating performance of the group, as it adjusts for non-operational items.

The group will be published with the condensed consolidated interim financial statements on Monday, 02 December 2024.

The expected financial results can be found below:

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