Naspers and Prosus shares both shed around 7% on the JSE on Tuesday after the technology investment group warned it will sharply increase spending at iFood, its Brazilian food delivery crown jewel, to fight off an aggressive competitive offensive in its single most important operating market.
In a letter to shareholders timed to coincide with the start of Prosus’s 2027 financial year, CEO Fabricio Bloisi said competitors had “committed to spending more than US$1.5-billion this year” to take market share from iFood. He described that level of spend as unsustainable but said Prosus will nonetheless mount a counter-offensive.
The result: iFood’s adjusted Ebitda for the 2027 financial year will fall to between $100-million and $150-million — a sharp climb-down from prior profitability projections. iFood’s adjusted Ebit grew 178% to $226-million in the 2025 financial year, and the broader e-commerce division delivered adjusted Ebitda — a measure of operating profitability — of $530-million in just the first half of the 2026 financial year.
Bloisi, who ran iFood before being elevated to the group CEO role in 2024, described the spending pivot as a strategic strength rather than a setback. iFood, he said, is “operating from a position of strength” and “knows how to invest smartly to defend and grow”. He said the group had already started “regrowing market share” late in FY26 after stepping up investment.
The market reaction suggests investors are unconvinced. Both Prosus and JSE-listed parent Naspers were down 7% in lunchtime trade in Johannesburg.
In Brazil, a range of iFood competitors have ramped up subsidies. iFood has long been the dominant player in Brazilian food delivery, but the economics of the category, with thin margins, high marketing costs and price-sensitive consumers, mean even a market leader cannot ignore well-funded rivals throwing cash at the problem.
Positive news
The investment will hit reported numbers in two ways. The increased spending directly reduces Ebitda, but the way some incentives are accounted for will also depress reported net revenue. Bloisi has asked shareholders to focus instead on orders and gross merchandise value, which he expects to grow strongly.
The trading update did contain positive news: Prosus hit its FY26 guidance of more than $7.3-billion in revenue and more than $1.1-billion in e-commerce adjusted Ebitda — though notably excluding the recently acquired Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) and France’s La Centrale. All Prosus ecosystems are now profitable, the company said, and free cash flow excluding Tencent continues to grow.
Read: Bloisi’s big cleanup at Prosus
The €4.1-billion JET acquisition, which closed in late 2025, remains a significant overhang for investors. Bloisi said JET will return to revenue and order growth by the end of FY27 after four years of decline, targeting revenue of more than $3.6-billion and adjusted Ebitda of more than $100-million.
European classifieds platform OLX was a FY26 standout, delivering more than $450-million in adjusted Ebitda. La Centrale, the French motoring marketplace acquired in late 2025, is being integrated into OLX’s technology stack — including its growing AI agent infrastructure, which now spans more than 2 600 agents and 75 active use cases, according to Bloisi.
In India, payments business PayU has reached profitability and is being positioned as the connector for Prosus’s broader investments in the country, which include Rapido, Swiggy, Ixigo, Urban Company and Meesho.
Prosus continues to repurchase Naspers and Prosus shares at an annual run rate of about $5-billion. Bloisi said the total amount returned to shareholders across both companies over four years will reach roughly $50-billion. The group also disposed of $2-billion of non-strategic assets in FY26. To comply with European Commission conditions attached to the JET deal, Prosus has sold a further 5% of Delivery Hero, taking total disposals of that stake to about $700-million.
Prosus will release full FY26 results in June. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.
