Prosus

Last edit: 2024-11-26

At one point there was a South African media conglomerate called Naspers, which pretty much stretched out into all forms of media. In 1997 the people from Naspers decided to split off some of it’s business to a daughter company, and that’s how we got Prosus. The company was formed with the idea of delegating the international media operations, while Naspers held on to all media in South Afrika itself.

Seeing as Prosus was created to handle all media outside of South Africa, that’s exactly what is has been doing, and more. The company has put a bigger focus on technology companies, rather than just media. One of their more well known investments is that of Tencent, a Chinese technology company which has seen tremendous growth.

Considering the companies whole strategy revolves around investing in media and technology company, it is a bit susceptible to having bad returns on investments. If you invest into other companies with the hope they grow, then that hardly guarantees a steady profit. It’s either win or lose.

As mentioned before, Prosus is highly dependent upon their investments paying off, which shows in their dividend payments. Although they pay a yearly dividend, the amount itself varies from year to year in a rather sporadic fashion. That said, there isn’t a big glaring reason why the company should go belly under. Mostly because it’s diversified investments.