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Naspers to ramp up e-commerce interests

Cape Town - Investments in China's largest internet firm Tencent Holdings and Russia's Mail.ru account for nearly 90% of the $23bn market value of media giant Naspers, Bloomberg reported.

According to this calculation, Naspers media operations would have a price tag of about $2.7bn.

This valuation was of little concern to the group and its reliance on the two foreign companies posed no risk to Naspers, CEO Koos Bekker reportedly said.

"These investments look very much like the engine of pay-TV for us," Bekker is quoted as saying.

The company has been on a global push to increase its internet interests.

Bekker told the publication Naspers would complete 10 to 20 acquisitions in the year through March, with some promising opportunities in the e-commerce space on the horizon, particularly in Eastern Europe.

The group has spent around R1.85bn buying e-commerce businesses, the report said.

These included year majority stakes in Netretail, an online retail business in central Europe, and Internet Mall AS, a Prague-based website that sells household goods. It also has a stake in Brazilian site Resolva.me, which rates professionals such as dentists.

Last month Naspers reported a 15% rise in profit for the year to end-March, boosted by solid growth in its internet business.

Naspers, now Africa's largest media company, has transformed itself from an apartheid-era newspaper publisher to a global multimedia business by buying stakes in emerging market internet companies.

It has also invested Polish e-commerce firm MIH Allegro and Buscape, a price-comparison site, and said it will focus on growing organically and developing new technologies.

Naspers' share price has risen nearly 30% this year.

Naspers shares were down 0.57% on Tuesday morning on the JSE.

*Fin24 is a Naspers publication.

 - Fin24
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