Naspers, the JSE-listed multinational media and technology group, has shown a continued shift away from traditional media towards investments in diversified global technology businesses.
Naspers subsidiary Media24 has closed a number of publications since the start of last year, including SA Garden/Tuin, NewsNow, Scoop!, Shape and the iconic multisport magazine, Sports Illustrated. In the chairman's address at the group's annual meeting on Friday, Vosloo said Naspers had reached "a strategic milestone" in the year ended March when revenue from its internet businesses exceeded that from pay-TV for the first time.
"During a somewhat bumpy period, Naspers grew revenue, including our share of associates' results, at a compound annual rate of some 25% over the past five years."
Vosloo said Naspers had posted a solid performance for the year. While global economic growth had remained variable, "we played the field as we found it".
The growth of mobile devices was an important technology trend for the group, Vosloo said. With more than 1 billion smartphones now accounting for 20% of all mobile devices worldwide, "internet use is shifting steadily from PC to mobile and tablets".
He said in some of the group's businesses as much as a third of total traffic now stemmed from mobile applications. While this trend disrupted existing business models, it also created opportunities.
The internet segment had driven group consolidated revenue growth of 27% to more than R50bn. This segment "recorded robust revenue growth across most platforms".
Naspers has a sizeable investment in Chinese internet company Tencent, which has recorded strong results, as has its Russian investment in Mail.ru.
Vosloo said "it was a tough year for print media operations globally". Revenue was flat "as advertisers proved stingy".
Further, circulation revenue was under pressure.
While Media24 was no exception, "trading profit rose marginally as costs were cut". Brazilian media company Abril, in which Naspers has a stake, suffered a decline in profitability "and cost-cutting initiatives are (being) implemented there".
Meanwhile, e-commerce revenue doubled in the year to R11bn. Vosloo said Naspers had "expanded these operations through organic growth and selective acquisitions".
As this segment was in the building phase, it was loss-making "and we do not expect aggregate profits for several more years," he said.
Pay-TV posted 20% growth in revenue to more than R30bn, while trading profit increased 18% to more than R7bn.
The annual meeting approved a gross dividend of 385c per Naspers N-ordinary and 77c per Naspers A-ordinary share.
Vosloo said dividends would be payable to shareholders on Wednesday, 25 September.
Source: Business Day, via i-Net Bridge
For more than two decades, I-Net Bridge has been one of South Africa’s preferred electronic providers of innovative solutions, data of the highest calibre, reliable platforms and excellent supporting systems. Our products include workstations, web applications and data feeds packaged with in-depth news and powerful analytical tools empowering clients to make meaningful decisions.
We pride ourselves on our wide variety of in-house skills, encompassing multiple platforms and applications. These skills enable us to not only function as a first class facility, but also design, implement and support all our client needs at a level that confirms I-Net Bridge a leader in its field.
Go to: http://www.inet.co.za
