NPSNY Naspers Ltd (PK)

By Sabela Ojea

Naspers Ltd. reported Monday a fall in pretax profit and a more-than-halved net profit for fiscal 2020 and said it has a strong position to navigate through the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The South Africa-based investor--which owns a major stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. through its Amsterdam-listed arm Prosus NV--posted a pretax profit for the year ended March 31 of $3.64 billion compared with $4.16 billion for the same period a year earlier.

The London-listed company's net profit fell to $3.14 billion from $6.90 billion, while group revenue was $22.1 billion, which reflected growth of 17% from continuing operations.

Core headline earnings from continuing operations fell 5% to $2.9 billion, Naspers said, noting that the board recommends an annual gross dividend of 580 U.S. cents per listed ordinary share. This compares with an annual gross dividend of 715 U.S. cents a share in fiscal 2019.

"The board is of the opinion that the group has sufficient financial flexibility given its low gearing and very strong liquidity position at March 31 [$4.8 billion] to negate the expected negative effects that could result from the Covid-19 impact," Naspers said.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 29, 2020 12:37 ET (16:37 GMT)

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