Listed media company Naspers is focused on growing the group by adding more acquisitions to its Internet division, which outperformed all its other units in the first half of the year.
The company yesterday reported its results for the six months to March, and said revenue overall had improved 5%, to R28 billion. Operational profit climbed 10%, to R5.4 billion, and core headline earnings grew 22%, to R5.3 billion.
Naspers says it experienced “satisfactory growth” during the six months, as many of the emerging markets in which it has operations escaped the downturn that hit the world as a result of the global recession.
Its Internet division was the star performer, with revenue from the unit growing 24%, to R9 billion. According to Naspers, “the Internet industry showed bold growth in emerging markets”. Its Internet division comprises Allegro, in central Europe, Tencent, in China, and Mail.ru, in Russia.
Naspers spent R4 billion in the first half of the year buying Internet companies such as its Latin American unit, BuscaP'e.
During the results presentation, the company said it was focused on medium- to long-term returns and would grow organically and through acquisitions. It added it's also constantly developing and introducing products.
Within the division, Tencent - the Chinese entity in which Naspers has a stake - grew 49% to R4.9 billion. Tencent performed ahead of expectations and the number of peak concurrent users is now 105 million.
Currency effects
However, the company's other Internet businesses were affected by the strong rand. The rest of the division grew 4%, to R4.3 billion. Stripping out the currency effects, revenue would have grown 19%.
Naspers says its Allegro unit, in Poland, delivered solid growth, with revenue 24% up in local currency. Its Indian joint venture with Tencent, ibibo, is currently developing social gaming and e-commerce platforms.
Russia-based Mail.ru's user base grew to 81 million active e-mail users and contributed R70 million to core headline earnings, a decrease from a year ago when it added R87 million due to the impact of the strong rand. Mail.ru has acquired Astrum, an online games platform operator in Russia.
In Latin America, BuscaP'e, which was added to the group last September, is growing its core comparison shopping business and broadening its base with new services, including electronic payments, classified advertising and affiliate advertising networks. In SA, 24.com grew users 34%.
Pay to watch
Naspers says its pay television division grew revenue 12% as 634 000 new households signed on for the service.
Until recently, Naspers' DStv was the only paid television option in SA. However, Top TV debuted in May and has a subscriber base of 73 000. Naspers, which is reporting figures before Top TV's entry, signed up 450 000 new households in SA in the first half, to take its subscriber base to 2.85 million.
Naspers' other competitor in the pay-to-view space, Super5Media, has yet to make an appearance. It was expected to be on shelves at the beginning of this month.
In the other 47 countries in which the company operates in Africa, it focused on providing local content and additional sport channels, which resulted in an extra 184 000 houses signing up, taking its African base to 1.1 million.
Mobile TV operations were introduced in Ghana, Kenya, Namibia and Nigeria, and the company is waiting for a licence from the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) before being released locally.
ICASA re-opened the bidding process at the beginning of the month after the first process in April gave applicants a mere three weeks to submit proposals. Bidders had until Monday to apply.
Shares in Naspers closed 1.52% lower yesterday to end the day at R257.90. A year ago today, the company reached its 52-week low of R203. Its 52-week high was on 18 March, when shares hit R323.
Share