, reported a better than expected net profit of $7.45 billion for 2021 on Monday, driven by strong returns from its big stake in Chinese software giant Tencent.
Analysts had seen net profit at $4.63 billion for the 12 months ended March 31, up from $3.66 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to Refinitiv data. Prosus owns 28.9% of TencentOf net profit, $7.1 billion came from minority investments, dominated by the contribution from Tencent, which grew profit by 33%.
It pointed a 54% increase in revenue in companies that it consolidates, to $5.1 billion from $3.3 billion. Prosus’ parent Naspers reported a 24% rise in reported core headline earnings per share - the main gauge of corporate profit in South Africa - of 814 U.S. cents, up from 656 cents reported for the same period a year earlier.