Naspers said on Monday that it has concluded the sale of its 11.2% stake in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, realising US$2.2-billion (about R32.2-billion) in proceeds.
The JSE-listed media and technology group announced in May that it would sell the stake in Flipkart to the US-based retail group Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue with annual sales of more than $500-billion.
“Shareholders are advised that all regulatory conditions have been met and that the transaction closed effective 18 August 2018,” Naspers said in a statement issued on the JSE’s stock exchange news service.
“Proceeds will be used to reinforce Naspers’s balance sheet and will be invested over time to accelerate the growth of Naspers’s classifieds, online food delivery and fintech businesses globally, and to pursue other exciting growth opportunities when they arise,” it said.
Earlier this month, Naspers said it would invest a further $500-million in US mobile classifieds platform letgo.
The three-year-old letgo has already seen over 100 million downloads of its smartphone app, has 400 million listings on its platform, and six billion messages have been sent between its users.
Naspers was trading 3% higher shortly after markets opened in Johannesburg on Monday. — (c) 2018 NewsCentral Media
- Listen to a podcast interview with Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk and letgo co-founder Alex Oxenford
