Valorant Backer Drives Doubled EPS For Prosus As Firm Readies Lifestyle Ecommerce Push In India
Looking ahead, the group will focus on building lifestyle ecommerce ecosystems in Latin America, India and Europe, the Naspers subsidiary said.
Investment major Prosus NV is planning to build up its lifestyle e-commerce presence in India and other geographies, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Looking ahead, the group will focus on building lifestyle ecommerce ecosystems in Latin America, India and Europe," the Naspers subsidiary said. The company will also be looking to accelerate innovation, and lean on its AI-driven technology to drive "sustainable profitable growth and create lasting value."
More details will be published with the company's financial statements on June 23, the statement read.
Prosus also said its earnings per share is likely to have doubled in the last fiscal after its e-commerce businesses saw accelerated growth. The company attributed the growth to the surge in value of its holding in China's Tencent Holdings Ltd., which is behind the popular video game Valorant.
The company also expects its headline EPS from continued operations to grow to between 91% and 100% year-on-year for the 12 month-ended period as of March.
Earlier in May, Prosus had said that it expected its profit to rise to over $435 million on the back of its e-commerce division, exceeding an
earlier estimate of $400 million.
The company's current plan focuses on boosting its e-commerce bottom line in order to double the firm's overall value by 2028. Chief Executive Fabricio Bloisi, who came into the role a year ago, is tasked with steering the company to a streamlined strategy which works for all of Prosus' 100-plus investments in five continents.
Late last month, Bloisi said that the firm was upbeat on investment opportunities in India and was also open to investing anywhere between $5 million and $1 billion in its ventures in the country.
So far, the group has made investments in Indian startups across various sectors, such as food delivery, finance and e-commerce. Swiggy, Meesho, PayU, Urban Company, PharmEasy, BlueStone and Rapido are some of its popular bets.
"We've already invested $9 billion in India and plan to expand further. We have wide flexibility to invest from $5 million cheques to $1 billion. In India, we are looking for the best innovators and entrepreneurs," Bloisi had said last month.
In its half-yearly disclosure from December, Prosus saw PharmEasy yield a negative internal rate of return, PayU India business revenue growth and a $500-million payout from the Swiggy market debut for the financial year. It also called out PayU, Meesho and Bluestone as potential IPO bets in the next 18 months, with Bluestone's draft papers being filed shortly after.
The financial results by the investment firm showed that from its India portfolio, PharmEasy yielded IRR of -38%, edtech company Eruditus delivered a 14% return and PayUIndia delivered a 21% return. Meesho delivered a 20% return and ElasticRun delivered a 23% return.
The firm said the revenue of PayU India business grew 12% to $237 million, with a strong growth of 25% in the total payments in value. The EBIT margin at -5% was 2 percentage points lower than last year, but showed improvement in the later months.
