- Naspers (OTCPK:NPSNY) ADRS are 1% lower in over-the-counter trading after posting first-half profits that rose 65% backed by strength in the South African firm's Internet businesses (and with no little help from its stake in China's Tencent).
- Revenues were up 33% on a headline basis and 39% if excluding acquisitions/disposals and currency. Businesses outside South Africa contributed 82% of revenues.
- Core headline earnings rose to $1.5B vs. a year-ago $914M.
- “E-commerce accelerated its topline growth, whilst Tencent produced another excellent set of results," says the company chair Koos Bekker. (It holds the largest stake in Tencent (TCEHY -4.7%), about a third.)
- "Video entertainment performed solidly in South Africa and managed to stabilize losses in sub-Saharan Africa, despite the continued need to navigate weak macroeconomic conditions," Bekker says.
- Revenue breakout: Internet, $6.9B (up 42%); Video entertainment, $1.8B (up 8%).
- It's "working hard" to narrow the difference between the value of its business and the one-third stake in Tencent, CFO Basil Sgourdos tells Bloomberg: “The discount is at an unusually high level, and there is no reason for the discount to be at this level." The Tencent shareholding is worth about $166B, while Naspers itself is worth about $124B.
- Press release
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Original article