JSE-listed media giant Naspers says core headline earnings will be slightly higher, while core earnings per share will leap in the six months to September.
However, the market did not react much to the company's trading update, as its stock closed 0.18% ? or 98c - lower, at R544. Just more than two million Naspers shares traded on Friday, on a day that the JSE's all share index closed 0.56% down.
Naspers, which has interests in pay-TV, Internet companies and print publications, says core headline earnings per share should be between 10% and 20% higher in the six months to September, compared with 2011's 921c a share.
Core headline earnings are seen as an "appropriate indicator of the sustainable operating performance of the group, as it adjusts for non-recurring and non-operational items", Naspers explains.
Naspers says earnings per share will be between 110% and 120% higher compared to the first half of last year, when earnings per shared came in at 498c. It says this is due to a once-off profit from Mail.ru's sale of a portion of its shares in Facebook.
Mail.ru is the largest Internet company in the Russian-speaking world and had a 2.33% stake in the popular social networking company. It also has a 21.35% share of one of the largest Russian payment services - QIWI - and other stakes.
Naspers says headline earnings per share for the first half of the year are expected to be between 15% and 25% higher than in 2011, when they were 692c. The group expects to release its results on 27 November.
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