By Ana Monteiro
(Bloomberg) — Naspers Ltd., Africa’s biggest company by market value and owner of the continent’s largest pay-TV service, said first-half profit probably rose as much as 42 percent.
So-called core headline earnings per share for the six months ended Sept. 30 will be 37 percent to 42 percent higher than the 15.28 rand ($1.09) reported a year earlier, the Cape Town, South Africa-based company said in a statement Friday. The measure adjusts for non-recurring and non-operational items.
Naspers has expanded through acquisitions of stakes in early-stage technology companies in emerging markets around the world. The company owns a 34 percent shareholding in Tencent Holdings Ltd. of Hong Kong, and last month agreed to buy a majority stake in Russia’s largest classifieds site Avito for $1.2 billion.
The results will be released on or about Nov. 27.
