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Internet boosts Naspers profit

Johannesburg - Media and e-commerce firm Naspers [JSE:NPN] posted an expected 15% rise in first-half earnings on Tuesday boosted by its internet businesses.

The Cape Town-based company with operations in emerging economies including Russia, China and Brazil said core headline earnings came in at 1062 cents per share in the six months to end-September, from 921c a year earlier.

It had flagged this month that underlying profit would rise by between 10% to 20%. Core headline profit, which Naspers says is its main earnings measure, excludes one-time items.

One-time items included a R1.5bn profit from the sale of some Facebook shares by Russian affiliate Mail.ru. Naspers owns 29% in Mail.ru.

Total revenue climbed 22% to R23bn after internet revenue rose 70% to R14.1bn.

Naspers said it spent $530m investing in new e-commerce businesses including Netretail, an on-line retailer with operations in Eastern Europe.

Naspers started off as a newspaper publisher and has morphed into a global multimedia business acquiring stakes in emerging-market internet companies such as China's Tencent and Brazil's Buscape.

Naspers' shares have risen over 50% this year. At 70 times price earnings, the company is considered expensive compared with the average of 13.5 times for Johannesburg's Top-40 index of blue chips.

* Fin24 is part of Media24, which is part the Naspers Group.

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