Naspers market cap hits R1 trillion

31 May 2016

Johannesburg - The share price of Naspers [JSE:NPN] hit the R2 300 mark on Tuesday, resulting in a market capitalisation of R1trn.

Naspers, which is Africa’s largest company by market value, has investments and operations in more than 130 countries as well as a 34% stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent.

The company’s share price on Tuesday at 10:05 touched a record high of R2 314.98 per share in Johannesburg.

The Naspers share price was, as always, supported by even stronger moves in the share price of Tencent, the biggest internet company in China.

The latest climb in the Naspers share price started the week before last after Tencent said growth in its gaming and advertising businesses helped revenue rise 43% in the first quarter of 2016, beating analyst estimates.

Tencent also announced on Friday that it will acquire 5% of Paradox Interactive, one of the biggest producers of online games. It is also in talks with Softbank to buy the Japanese telecommunications giant's majority stake in Finland's Supercell. Supercell is the developer of some of the world’s most popular online games, such Hay Day and Clash of Clans.

Naspers took a gamble when it bought a stake in the social network and online games platform in China 15 years ago, a gamble that is paying off handsomely as the media giant owes most of its earnings to Tencent.

A rise in revenue from its Russian classified-ads unit also supported the share price, with the weakening rand helping to boost the value of its foreign earnings.

Alongside Tencent, Naspers still has its old print and newer digital media operations, is heavily invested in e-commerce and online classifieds, has diversified into entertainment and games and runs a successful African pay-television business.

This article first appeared on Fin24, see here.