Prosus expects to report higher annual earnings amid strong growth in revenue and profitability of its consolidated businesses and equity-accounted investments, most notably Tencent.
The group said on Friday that core HEPS for continuing operations for the year to end-March are expected to increase 19%-28% from a year ago. Core HEPS adjusts for non-operational items.
HEPS for continuing operations will rise 6.7%-15.7%, it said.
Core HEPS outpaced headline earnings, as the core measure excludes fair value investment losses recognised in Tencent’s earnings, it said.
HEPS and core HEPS for the previous year were 258 US cents and 306c, respectively.
The group said the financial year to end-March 2026 marked a milestone for Prosus as it delivered on its ambitious targets, generating more than $7.3bn in revenue and $1.1bn in Ecosystem (formerly called Ecommerce) adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda).
“Every one of our ecosystems is now profitable, and our free cash flow — excluding Tencent — continues to grow. We have completed our transformation from a traditional holding company into an active operator of AI-driven lifestyle ecosystems across Latin America, Europe and India,“ it said.
Parent Naspers said it expects its core HEPS from continuing operations to increase 20.8%-27.8% from the previous year’s 366c and HEPS to rise 8.3%-15.3% from the previous year’s 306c. The financial results of Prosus almost completely account for Naspers’s results.
The companies will report earnings on June 29.
Prosus CEO Fabricio Bloisi recently told shareholders to prepare for a year of executing the group’s lofty growth ambitions to become a technology supermajor, buoyed by meeting its target of $7.3bn in revenues.
Bloisi, who doubles up as Naspers CEO, used his annual letter to shareholders to shore up confidence in the group’s growth story, with all of the company’s ecosystems now profitable.
“We are making meaningful progress in building the number one lifestyle ecosystem in Latin America, Europe and India. We will continue this discipline in FY27. We will make trade-offs to drive growth, increase investment to compete more aggressively and accelerate product deployment to position our ecosystems for long-term secular growth,” he said recently.
Bloisi has been making moves to reshape the portfolio, clinching some of the group’s largest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals in its history.
The group last year completed the $1.7bn purchase of Latin American online travel agency Despegar, taking total M&A spending under Bloisi to about $6bn since he took office in 2024.
Bloisi has been given a herculean task of doubling the group’s market capitalisation to $168bn by 2028 — dangling a $100m “moonshot” award for him should he meet the lofty target, which, if achieved, would make the group bigger than the present market cap of SoftBank, PayPal, Shopify or Airbnb.
Shares in both companies closed lower on the JSE on Friday, with Naspers down 1.91% at R828.84 and Prosus shedding 1.1% to R732.80.
With Mudiwa Gavaza
Business Day
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