* E-commerce group sees flat 2012 profit
* Group focusing on organic growth
* 2011 core headline EPS 1,850 cents vs 1,612
* S.Africa group’s revenue up 19 pct
* Shares up 1.3 percent, up 30 pct this year
By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
JOHANNESBURG, June 27 – Heavy spending to drive organic
growth at South Africa’s e-commerce and media company Naspers
will keep profit flat this year, as the company steers
away from the acquisition trail in the face of high valuations
and restless shareholders.
Chief Executive Koos Bekker sees the $22 billion company,
which reported a 15 percent jump in profit for the year to the
end of March, increasing revenue by about 20 percent this year
and spending over 7 percent of that to grow its own businesses.
“We will probably keep growing the top line quite nicely at
around 20 percent or so, but the profit line will be flat
because we tend to spend quite a lot in developing our own
services,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Continued…
