This comes as Naspers reported a 40% drop in core headline earnings to $2.1 billion, and Prosus a 23% reduction to $3.7 billion for the year ended March 31, due to"a period of slower growth at Tencent as it adapted to regulatory changes in China." Group trading profit declined by 10% to $5 billion, while it reported group revenue growth of 24% to $36.7 billion.
"The discount to the group's sum of the parts increased to an unacceptable level. Taking substantive action to reduce the discount is a priority." This action includes its share repurpose programme. The Naspers and Prosus boards said they still"have great confidence in Tencent's long term prospects", and said the programme will result in the group increasing its exposure to Tencent on a per share basis.
Naspers and Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk said the group expects the repurchase programme to significantly increase net asset values per share.