By Léo Marchandon
(Reuters) – Dutch technology investor Prosus reported a 99% rise in half-year adjusted core profit on Monday, driven by strong performance in its digital services and e-commerce portfolio.
Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose to $423 million from $213 million a year ago, while revenue jumped 22% to $3.6 billion, driven by strong results from its iFood and OLX platforms.
Prosus also confirmed its guidance for the full year.
Majority-owned by South Africa’s Naspers and the largest shareholder of Chinese tech giant Tencent, Prosus is making a major transformation from a passive investment company to a hands-on operator of its e-commerce assets.
In Europe, it includes its acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway for 4.1 billion euros ($4.7 billion). It also announced a $1.3 billion deal to acquire French classifieds platform La Centrale in September, while Reuters reported in November that it had expressed early interest in German auto marketplace Mobile.de.
In India, Prosus invested $350 million in ride-hailing company Rapido and $146 million in a stake in online travel agent Ixigo. Meanwhile, its Latin American unit iFood bought a stake in financial technology company CRMBonus and was reportedly in advanced talks to buy employee benefits company Alelo for $905 million.
“We remain disciplined in our portfolio management by divesting our non-core businesses and allocating this capital to our ecosystem strategy,” Prosus said in a statement.
Divestitures generated $1.2 billion in proceeds in the first half and the company expects to reach $2 billion by the end of the fiscal year.
Prosus added that it had $18.3 billion in cash reserves, supplemented by an additional $2.5 billion available on an undrawn credit line.
It is committed to pursuing large-scale acquisitions in Europe, Latin America and India, Chief Financial Officer Nico Marais told Reuters. It also invested more than $100 million in the first half of the year in the development of agentic AI models adapted to its platforms.
Naspers, the majority owner of Prosus, saw revenue rise 20% to $4.1 billion in the first half, while adjusted EBITDA rose 96% to $433 million.
($1 = 0.8684 euros)
(Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
