Prosus NV (AMS: PRX) reported a 29% annualised growth in its H1 earnings on Monday to £1.65 billion. The company attributed the increase primarily to significant returns from its investment in China’s Tencent, that helped offset losses from its other businesses.
Prosus NV was reported more than 1% up in premarket trading on Monday and jumped another 1% on market open. At £81.70 per share, its shares that you can learn to buy online here, are now 35% up year to date in the stock market, after recovering from a low of £43.82 per share in March, when the COVID-19 crisis wreaked havoc on global businesses. Prosus debuted in the stock market at a per-share price of £65.66 in September 2019.
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Prosus reports £154.82 million of operating loss in H1
Prosus, that currently has a 31% stake in Tencent, had its core headline earnings capped at £1.27 billion in the same period last year.
The technology investment company expressed confidence on Monday that its performance will remain robust in the upcoming months as it continues to benefit from the COVID-19 crisis that accelerated a shift to online in recent months. According to CEO Bob van Dijk:
“The pandemic has accelerated activity in the consumer internet space, benefitting our businesses.”
In separate news, UK’s Sirius Real Estate said on Monday that its pre-tax profit in fiscal H1 was lower due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Prosus said that its operating loss in the fiscal first half printed at £154.82 million versus a broader £188.48 million in the comparable period of last year. The Netherlands-based company attributed the decline in operating loss to its food delivery platforms in India and Brazil that it said showed resilience in recent months.
Proceeds from minority stakes stood at £2.17 billion
Prosus has a minority stake in several companies, including Tencent. Proceeds from these investments, it added, stood at £2.17 billion in the six months that concluded on 30th September versus the year-ago figure of £1.72 billion.
The largest consumer internet company in Europe said that its per-share earnings registered at £1.38 in H1 as compared to £1.15 lasts year. Prosus valued its net cash at £3.22 billion as of the end of H1. It had expressed plans of £3.74 billion worth of share repurchase in October.
At the time of writing, Prosus NV is valued at £132.48 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 46.42.
