Prosus doubles half-year core profit amid e-commerce pivot

By Leo Marchandon

(Reuters) -Dutch exertion capitalist Prosus reported a 99% surge successful its adjusted half-year halfway nett connected Monday, driven by beardown ​performances crossed its integer services and e-commerce portfolio.

Its adjusted net earlier interest, taxes,‌ depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew to $423 cardinal from $213 cardinal a twelvemonth ago, portion gross jumped ‌22% to $3.6 billion, driven by robust results from its iFood and OLX platforms.

Prosus besides confirmed its full-year guidance.

Majority-owned by South Africa's Naspers and the biggest shareholder of Chinese tech elephantine Tencent, Prosus is carrying retired a large translation from a passive concern steadfast into a ⁠hands-on relation of its e-‌commerce assets.

In Europe, it is integrating its 4.1 cardinal euro ($4.7 billion) acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway. It besides announced a ‍$1.3 cardinal woody to get French classifieds level La Centrale successful September, portion Reuters reported successful November it had shown early-stage involvement successful German car marketplace Mobile.de.

In India, Prosus has invested $350 cardinal ​in ride-hailing steadfast Rapido and $146 cardinal successful a involvement successful online question cause Ixigo.‌ Meanwhile, its Latin American iFood portion bought a involvement successful fiscal exertion steadfast CRMBonus and was reportedly successful precocious talks to bargain benefits institution Alelo for $905 million.

"We stay disciplined successful managing our portfolio by divesting non-strategic businesses and allocating that superior towards our ecosystem strategy," Prosus said successful a statement.

Divestitures generated $1.2 cardinal successful proceeds successful the archetypal half, and ⁠the institution expects to scope $2 cardinal by the extremity ​of the fiscal year.

Prosus added it had $18.3 cardinal ​in currency reserves, complemented by a further $2.5 cardinal disposable from an unused recognition line.

It is committed to pursuing high-profile acquisitions crossed Europe, Latin ‍America and India, Chief ⁠Financial Officer Nico Marais told Reuters. It besides invested much than $100 cardinal successful the archetypal fractional successful processing agentic AI models tailored for its platforms.

Prosus' bulk proprietor Naspers ⁠saw gross turn 20% to $4.1 cardinal successful the archetypal fractional of the year, portion adjusted EBITDA ‌grew 96% to $433 million.

($1 = 0.8684 euros)

(Reporting by Leo ‌Marchandon successful Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)