Naspers, a major shareholder of Tencent, earned US $17 billion in the first half of the year, up 9% from the same period last year.

According to news on the evening of November 24, Beijing time, Tencent major shareholder Naspers (JSE: NPN) today released its results for the first half of fiscal year 2023 ending September 30. According to the financial report, Naspers's operating profit in the first half of the year was $1.4 billion, down 38% from the same period last year, mainly due to a reduction in contribution from Tencent.

In the first half of fiscal 2023, Naspers's revenue was $17 billion, up 9 per cent from $16.8 billion a year earlier. Of this total, revenue from e-commerce was $5.6 billion, up 38 per cent from $4.2 billion in the same period last year.

Operating profit (trading profit) was $1.4 billion, down 38% from $2.8 billion a year earlier, mainly due to reduced contributions from Tencent and investment in e-commerce. Of this total, the operating loss of the e-commerce business was $1 billion, compared with an operating loss of $524 million in the same period last year. Naspers expects the e-commerce business to be profitable in the first half of fiscal 2025.

Naspers's core operating profit (Core Headline Earnings, excluding non-operating and one-time profits) was $372 million, down 51 per cent from $1.4 billion a year earlier.

Naspers said it peaked in the first half of the year by focusing on organic investment in businesses with high growth potential. Looking ahead, the cost of investment is expected to fall.

Naspers also said that the large scale of liquid assets is its strategic advantage in the current environment. As of last year, Naspers had total cash of $16 billion and net cash of $760 million.

In addition, Tencent announced last week that it would distribute Meituan shares to shareholders next year. Naspers said it would treat the shares as "assets for sale" when it received them.