AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Prosus NV, the Dutch-based technology investor, on Monday reported a 20% fall in its core headline earnings, a non-standard measure, for its financial year and also announced a major share repurchasing programme.
The company plans to release its profit and loss figures later in the day.
The core headline earnings of the financial year ended March 31 came in at $3.7 billion, compared with $4.9 billion reported in a year-ago period.
“The macro-economic and severe geopolitical challenges in the second half of the year have presented significant headwinds,” Chief Financial Officer Basil Sgourdos said in a statement.
Prosus and South Africa’s Naspers, which owns a controlling stake in the Dutch company, said they were launching an open-ended share repurchasing programme, under which they would sell down the massive 28.9% stake Prosus holds in Chinese software giant Tencent, owner of WeChat, worth more than $100 billion.
They also announced the sale of a stake in Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, which had been distributed to owners of Tencent, raising proceeds $3.7 billion.
The core headline figures were in line with indications the company had given in a June 15 trading statement saying it expected underlying profit to fall by 14-21% due to higher investment costs in the e-commerce companies it operates and lower dividends from investments such as Tencent.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
