Yesterday wasn’t a great day for Naspers, with share prices dropping by as much as 10% during the course of trading.
That’s the biggest single-day drop since October 2008, although it had rallied back slightly towards the end of the day.
Naspers, Africa’s largest company in terms of value, took a beating after Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings posted earnings that fell short of analyst estimates.
That matters because Naspers owns a 31% stake in Tencent, with this below via Fin24:
Net income fell 2% to 17.9bn yuan ($2.6bn) in the three months ended June, the Shenzhen-based company said. That is well short of the 19.3 billion-yuan average of analysts’ estimates.
The result underscored slowing growth in cash cow mobile game Honour of Kings [an in-game picture below], increased spending and fewer investment gains.
After soaring into the ranks of the world’s biggest companies, Tencent has lost more than $150bn of market value as the company was unable to monetise new games.
China ordered it to shut down Monster Hunter: World from its PC downloads service just days after its debut while the country’s watchdogs are said to have frozen approval of game licenses. That contributed to a 19% drop in mobile gaming revenue from the first quarter.
Oh no, not Monster Hunter: World – shook.
If you like rollercoasters, here’s a look at Naspers trading throughout the course of yesterday:
There’s probably a number of people with money tied up in Naspers shares, who suddenly have a keen interest in the mobile games market.
It’s not all doom and gloom for Tencent, though, who still commands a powerful asset in WeChat, with monthly active users climbing above one billion for the first time.
[source:fin24]
