Opening Bell – Naspers share buyback continues

Naspers recently announced a long-term share repurchase programme of Naspers and Prosus shares.

The programme is designed to increase net asset value per share, taking advantage of Prosus and Naspers’s trading discounts to their underlying net asset value.

The repurchase programme is open-ended and will run as long as elevated levels of the trading discount to the group’s underlying net asset value persist.

The repurchase programme is funded by an on-market sale of Tencent shares held by Prosus.

Here is the biggest news of the day.

• PSG Asset Management could be dumping Tongaat Hulett. Tongaat released a statement in line with JSE requirements that it has received formal notification from PSG that it has disposed of a beneficial interest in the company. PSG still has a 7.78% shareholding in Tongaat.
• Naspers / Prosus continues its share buybacks. Last week Prosus repurchased its own shares to the value of US$220 million (3.3 million shares) and Naspers shares to the value of US$100 million (660 000 shares).
• US Fed’s most notorious hawk wants to hike rates another 1.5% before the end of the year. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Tuesday that “I think that inflation has come in hotter than what I would have expected during the second quarter. Now that that has happened, I think we’re going to have to go a little bit higher than what I said before.” Bullard estimated that they need to end the year with a benchmark of 3.75% – 4% but believes a soft landing can still be achieved.
• Paypal beats expectations, jumps 11.3% after hours. Quarterly revenue grew 9% to $6.8 billion compared to expectations of $6.7 billion. Free cash flow grew 22% to $1.3 billion. Earnings per share were down to a loss of -$0.29 compared with $1.00 last year.
• AMD experiences massive revenue growth. The company’s quarterly results showed revenue of $6.5 billion, up 70% year-over-year from $3.8 billion. Earnings per share, however, were down 53% year-over-year from $0.58 to $0.27. It is due to a 150% increase in operating expenses.
• Robinhood wants to lay off a further 23% of its workforce after already laying off 9% in April, according to CEO Vlad Tenev. The company’s quarterly revenue contracted from $565 million last year to $318 million. The company also showed a decrease in active users and assets under custody. The company made a loss per share of -$0.34 for the quarter.