Prosus CEO Fabricio Bloisi published an update to shareholders covering his first 100 days in his role, and he says there has been continued strong, profitable growth after AI usage was ramped up across the group internet businesses.
The letter indicated that Naspers subsidiary, Prosus, was well on its way to its goal outlined in June 2022, to make its e-commerce investments reach profitable by the first half of the 2025 financial year.
This is because at that time, investors only valued Prosus and Naspers on their investment in China’s internet giant Tencent, from where the group was deriving most of its income.
Bloisi was appointed on May 17 this year and at the time market analysts said a key feature of his tenure was likely to be to bring the e-commerce businesses to operational profitability.
Naspers’ share price inched down 1.15% to R4 141.06 yesterday afternoon on the JSE, but still significantly higher than the R2 888.84 per share it traded 12 months ago.
In his letter, Bloisi said that first half revenue had accelerated compared with 2024, and adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for the first half was roughly three times that of 2024.
He said their e-commerce operations were set to deliver about $400 million (R7 billion) in adjusted EBIT in the 2025 financial year, in line with that produced last year.
“Today Prosus is worth around $100 billion, and I am focused on how we can create another $100bn of value in the Prosus ecosystem by building and investing in fast growing and profitable businesses. I am also focused on how that will generate real returns for our shareholders,” Bloisi said.
He said he had spent most of the past three months with the businesses to understand how they could grow faster, be more profitable and how they could work together more closely with each other.
“We have implemented a new management model and introduced new rituals to ensure our employees are informed and engaged. The group is moving faster, innovating and developing connectivity. We have done a lot in a short period across our operations and portfolio, highlighting value and amplifying our businesses through AI,” Bloisi wrote in his letter.
“We continue to integrate AI across the business. You have seen examples of this from the iFood and OLX case studies on our website. You will continue to see more as we increasingly deploy AI to amplify our results.”
The structure of eMAG had been streamlined and the business was aiming for full year profitability.
iFood hit 100 million orders per month and Bloisi said he had “rewarded them with a new goal of 200m orders per month”.
The stake in Trip.com was sold for $1.5bn.
“We will continue to manage our portfolio actively as we look to maximise and unlock more value for our shareholders,” he said.
Superbalist was also sold and Takealot was positioned for sustained growth, enabling it to concentrate its efforts to further expand Takealot.com and Mr D.
“We implemented a new management model that will help Takealot to move faster, sharpen its focus, and deliver superior services in South Africa,” he said.
Swiggy, the food and delivery company in India, planned to list.
“Our early focus and investment in India is paying off and we are excited to see the potential for Swiggy's value to be clearly highlighted in the public domain.”
He said they had many investments in India and the group intended to continue to invest there as management was excited about the country prospects.
“I expect we will see more of our investments in India IPO in the coming 12 to 18 months.”
An agreement was signed to sell Tazz, a Romanian food delivery company owned by eMAG, to Wolt.
BUSINESS REPORT