Media and technology group Naspers’s share price touched fresh record highs on Wednesday after China’s largest Internet company, Tencent, in which it holds a 34% stake, beat analysts’ expectations in the first quarter.
According to Bloomberg, net income of just over 4 billion yuan (R5,9bn), up from 2,95 billion yuan, handily beat analyst forecasts. Profit rose by 37,1%.
Tencent owns the popular QQ and WeChat instant messaging platforms. WeChat, which was recently launched in South Africa, has 194,4m active monthly users, up more than 200% from last year.
Naspers’s share price was trading higher by 3% shortly after publication of the Tencent numbers. Shortly before midday, it touched a new record high of R686,20/share.
The company’s share surge over the past year — it’s up by 45,2% — has pushed its market capitalisation to R284bn. That’s R100bn more than the combined value of Vodacom and Telkom.
Naspers, founded in 1915 as an Afrikaans newspaper publisher, also owns DStv operator MultiChoice, Internet service provider MWeb, and a range of Internet businesses across emerging markets. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media