By Amy Thomson, Bloomberg.
Prosus NV said its earnings per share likely nearly doubled in the last fiscal year after growth at its e-commerce businesses accelerated and the value of its holding in Chinese internet company Tencent Holdings surged.
Headline earnings per share from continued operations are set to grow 91% to 100% in the 12 months that ended in March compared to a year earlier, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Chief Executive Officer Fabricio Bloisi is set on boosting the e-commerce division’s profitability as part of a plan to double his company’s value by June 2028. Prosus, a subsidiary of South Africa’s Naspers, had said in May that it expects profit to rise to more than $435 million at its e-commerce division, exceeding an earlier target for the 2025 financial year.
Two of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in the Prosus stable include: online marketplace OLX, which has grown its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes by more than 50% to about $270 million, and iFood, which more than doubled its profit this year to more than $200 million. Bloisi got the CEO role at Prosus after running iFood.
The company’s relationship with its holding in Tencent has been fraught. Naspers was an early investor in Tencent and is the Chinese company’s largest investor, with a stake of about 24%. As Tencent grew, the size of the holding distorted the value of the rest of the business, pushing Naspers to split off its tech investments into Prosus, to pursue complicated cross-holding arrangements and ultimately to begin selling off some of the stake. Tencent’s shares have gained 24% this year.
The Amsterdam-based company’s EPS calculations exclude gains from selling Tencent shares and the impact of impairment charges.
Prosus’s shares were little changed at €47.38 in Amsterdam trading on Wednesday. The stock has gained 24% this year.