Naspers today reported a 19% increase in consolidated revenue to R39,5 billion for the year ended 31 March 2012. Core headline earnings, considered by the board to be a good indication of sustainable performance, were up 15% on the previous year to R6,9 billion or R18,50 per share. This was achieved while accelerating the organic development of businesses and incurring costs of R2,8 billion in the process. Positive free cash flows amounted to R3,6 billion. A dividend increase of 24% to R3,35 is proposed.
“We experienced stronger growth across most of our businesses,” Naspers chairman Ton Vosloo said. “The internet remains the key growth area, with several new services being developed.”
Internet segment revenues advanced 59% year on year to R19,2 billion. Due to an increased focus on scaling e-commerce platforms and building operations organically, trading profits increased at a slower rate of 9% to R3,8 billion.
The pay-television business recorded satisfactory subscriber growth and now reaches 5,6 million households across the African continent. The addition of 684 000 subscribers delivered revenue growth of 15% to R24,1 billion. Trading profit growth was trimmed to 11% due to investment in broadcasting infrastructure and technology, including the rollout of digital terrestrial television services in a number of sub-Saharan countries.
Print operations in South Africa had a slightly steadier year and reported 15% revenue growth largely due to new commercial print contracts. Trading profits recovered somewhat as the business continued to manage costs.
Naspers’ share of core earnings from associates, including Tencent in China, Mail.ru Group in Russia and Abril in Brazil, increased by 38% to R5 billion.
“The markets and specific business sectors in which we operate remain lively,” Naspers CEO Koos Bekker said. “We have many competitive, regulatory and technology challenges, but we also have opportunities.”
Naspers financial director Steve Pacak added: “We will focus on growing our business for the long term. I expect the current levels of development spend to continue as we build businesses organically.”
The complete results are available on the Naspers website at http://www.naspers.com.
Naspers owns Multichoice, Dealfish, Mocality in Nigeria