27 Nov 2012 07:00
Media release
South Africa, 27 November 2012 - Naspers Limited (JSE: NPN) today announced its results for the six months ended 30 September 2012.
NASPERS ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT SPEND
Naspers today reported consolidated revenue of R23 billion, a 22% increase, for the six months ended 30 September 2012. Core headline earnings per share, considered by the board to be a good indication of sustainable performance, increased 15% to R10.62, totalling R4,1 billion. The internet segment remained the area of fastest growth, whilst some benefit was gained from a weaker rand. Development costs as a result of the organic growth of businesses increased 41% to R1,6 billion. Positive free cash flows increased 22% to R1,7 billion.
"The group continues to grow organically, with an increasing focus on e-commerce," Naspers chairman Ton Vosloo said. "In addition, we have invested R4,5 billion year to date in acquiring new businesses in this area".
Revenues from the e-commerce segment expanded robustly by 61% to R4bn. Organic growth accounted for 27% of the total. A focus on building scale and expandinge-commerce platforms across the value chain has trimmed trading profits by R1 billion and increased the trading loss in the sector.
After recording net growth of 393,000, the pay-television base now stands at just over6 million homes across 48 countries in Africa. Revenues were up by 19% toR14,4 billion, whilst trading profits grew 18% to R4 billion. Trading margins were stable despite the upgrading of satellite infrastructure, the expansion of online services and a roll-out of digital terrestrial television (DTT) services across a number of sub-Saharan countries.
Print operations in South Africa were strained by the challenging economic climate, but reported steady growth. Margins improved due to a continued focus on managing costs.
Naspers' share of core earnings from associates, including Tencent in China, Mail.ru Group in Russia and Abril in Brazil, increased by 46% to R3,1 billion.
"During the next six months we'll keep growing our e-commerce operations across emerging markets," Naspers CEO Koos Bekker said. "We intend to step up the gas and as a result development spend will accelerate in the second half of the year".
Naspers financial director Steve Pacak added: "With development spend ramping up and a changing business mix, future margins will trend down. The plan is however to increase our absolute profits and returns over time".
For more information contact:
Meloy Horn, Head of Investor Relations
Tel: +27 11 289 3320
+27 11 289 4446
Mobile: +27 82 772 7123
Steve Pacak, Financial Director
Tel: +27 21 406 3585
+27 21 406 2480
Mobile: +27 83 250 0006
The complete results are available on the Naspers website at http://www.naspers.com.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
This media release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe", "anticipate", "intend", "seek", "will", "plan", "could", "may", "endeavour" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. While these forward-looking statements represent our judgements and future expectations, a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors could cause actual developments and results to differ materially from our expectations. These include numerous factors that could adversely affect our businesses and financial performance. We are not under any obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements contained herein.