Naspers sees massive earnings increase as eCommerce recovers

Naspers saw revenue and profit growth in the first half of the 2024 financial year as its eCommerce business sharply reduced its loss.

Naspers and Prosus released their results for the half-year ended 30 September 2023 today, which revealed stronger results for the company.

The company’s consolidated revenue from continuing operations grew by 9% to $3.01 billion from $2.76 billion in H1 2023.

The greatest contributors were Classifieds, Food Delivery, and Payments and Fintech, the company said. 

Naspers’ eCommerce consolidated trading losses from continuing operations decreased by $232 million to $38 million in H1 as cost reductions and improved efficiencies came through. 

Trading losses for this segment reduced from a peak of $270 million.

The company’s free cash inflow was also strong at $597 million.

Naspers’ earnings per ordinary share from continuing operations grew by over 60% to 812 US cents, while basic headline earnings per share from continuing operations grew by over 1,000% to 311 US cents from 28 cents previously.

“This was primarily due to improved profitability of our eCommerce consolidated businesses and equity-accounted investments, particularly Tencent, and higher net interest income during the period,” Naspers said.

Despite these strong results, Naspers still made a trading loss of $124 million, although this is a 65% improvement from the loss in H1 2023.

Naspers and Prosus CFO Basil Sgourdos said, “The group has delivered strong financial performance, beating industry levels of growth while significantly accelerating profitability.” 

“Driven by continued strong execution across our eCommerce portfolio, I expect this trajectory to continue at pace.” 

“Our Classifieds and Food Delivery segments are both profitable, and PayU is making strong progress towards profitability.” 

He said the company’s strong and flexible balance sheet, active portfolio management and disciplined capital allocation will underpin its success.

Naspers did not declare an interim dividend.