Weekend Early

Loni Prinsloo, Journalist with Bloomberg News Johannesburg, gave us her Big Five take-away points from her interview with Bob van Dijk CEO of Africa’s largest company by market value, Naspers and will share the points from the interview.

CEO of Naspers, Bob van Dijk, told Prinsloo that Naspers is doing well and that they will still make strong profits.

The Bloomberg forecast by analysts is that revenue will still rise 13% to R82 billion for the year.

— Loni Prinsloo, Journalist with Bloomberg News Johannesburg

But, says Prinsloo, there is concern about the Sub-Saharan region where falling commodity prices has had such a devastating effect. The more consumers are squeezed, the less they have to spend on luxuries like Pay TV and online movies - a big part of Naspers's market.

Bob van Dijk said their margins are going to be pressured in this region.

— Loni Prinsloo, Journalist with Bloomberg News Johannesburg

There is a bigger picture though for Naspers. Most notably is their enormous success linked to Tencent Holdings Ltd. Prinsnloo says their shares in the company have been very successful.

Since about 2010, Naspers shares in Tencent have risen 600%.

— Loni Prinsloo, Journalist with Bloomberg News Johannesburg

She says van Dijk seems committed to the Sub-Saharan region despite the economic constraints on consumers. He sees long term potential. Consumers in the region are so squeezed by inflation, and so he has said Naspers will absorb some of the costs of buying top dollar international content for their media platforms and that for now Naspers has decided not to increase prices this year

This article first appeared on 702 : Big Five take-away points about one of Africa's media giants