Naspers trading statement - still growing quickly

Naspers released a trading statement on Friday afternoon. Just Thursday we had the numbers from their largest investment, Tencent, we covered those Friday - Tencent 3Q numbers - Strong top & bottom line growth. This trading statement has a few moving parts. As they often say (the Naspers board, they!), they consider "core headline earnings an appropriate indicator of the sustainable operating performance of the group, as it adjusts for non-recurring and non-operational items."

This metric is likely to be between 23 and 28 percent higher than the prior reporting period. At the top end of the range this is expected to 216 US cents of earnings for the half, at 14.40 to the ZAR that translates to just over 31 Rands of earnings. For the half. Results are expected this Friday, there and there abouts. It is best to value this business on the sum of the parts, rather than out and out earnings. They are building businesses that will take them to the next stage of growth, ecommerce and classifieds.

The recent action in divestments and consolidations show you that Bob van Dijk's style is likely to be more focused. Naspers sells Allegro for $3.2 billion and Naspers Ibibo mergers with MakeMyTrip. The TV business is becoming increasingly crowded, TV on demand at cheaper costs is here, the internet speeds (and costs) matter the most in their territories. And the live sport. How that is going to compete as an entertainment form in the future is critical.

Mind you, the English Premier League just sold television rights to a Chinese streaming service for a three year period for 564 million Pounds. The premier league is expected to generate over 8 billion Dollars in broadcast rights for the period to 2019. In the US, NBC just paid 1 billion Dollars for a 6 year deal to 2022. Supersport paid around 296 million Pounds to show games across SubSaharan Africa for the period 2016-2019. Total club wage costs last season? 1.5 billion Pounds, for the Premier League only. Wow. Live sport (sometimes you don't need it - the Springboks on Saturday), most of the time you can only watch it live. Stay tuned for Friday and Naspers results. For the record, Naspers tacked on just over two percent on the day. The stock is now a single percent higher over the last 12 months. Santa Claus rally, where are you?