Naspers Limited
South African holding company controlling Prosus, Tencent stake, Takealot, OLX, Just Eat Takeaway.
On the record
Checkpoint: H1 FY27 results, testing Just Eat Takeaway turnaround and Takealot's position against Amazon
The call
Naspers's survival rests on Tencent cash and buybacks, while Takealot and Just Eat Takeaway fight separate battles against Amazon and delivery rivals.
Naspers is a 110-year-old investment company that owns stakes in online businesses like Takealot (South African online shopping) and Just Eat Takeaway (food delivery across Europe), plus a huge 23% ownership stake in the Chinese tech giant Tencent. The company is getting harder to copy because it has built real scale: Takealot has hundreds of millions of users and their transaction data, plus actual delivery trucks and warehouses that AI companies cannot easily replace. However, Amazon entered South Africa in 2024 and signed up thousands of sellers, directly challenging Takealot, and the food delivery business is struggling and needs to turn around under new leadership. The one thing that could change everything is how well Tencent performs in China's artificial intelligence competition and whether Chinese regulators allow it to keep growing, since Naspers's future earnings depend almost entirely on that Tencent stake, not on anything the Naspers team can control.
Why
01
AI pressure: Chinese AI rivals racing Tencent (Alibaba, ByteDance) plus AI shopping agents bypassing marketplaces. Naspers's value rides on Tencent's AI standing in China; any slip there hits Naspers NAV directly, not via its own operations. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Amazon (entered South Africa May 2024, 10,000+ sellers signed in year one). Amazon is live in Takealot's home market with a large seller base, though Takealot just posted its first full year profit. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Cash from the roughly 23% Tencent stake funds a $46bn buyback machine, giving the parent room to absorb losses at any single unit.
What would change this call
Takealot's reported active customers and GMV growth in FY27 full-year results versus Amazon South Africa's seller and order volume. Would show whether Amazon is actually pulling share from Takealot or Takealot is holding its lead.
Just Eat Takeaway's H1 FY27 results (around November 2026) under CEO Roberto Gandolfo. Would show whether the food delivery turnaround is working or margins keep dragging on Naspers earnings.
Completion of Delivery Hero's stake sale to Uber, expected around six months after the 16 July 2026 agreement. Would confirm consolidation in food delivery and how it reshapes competition facing Just Eat Takeaway.
Just Eat Takeaway's H1 FY27 results (around November 2026) under CEO Roberto Gandolfo. Would show whether the food delivery turnaround is working or margins keep dragging on Naspers earnings.
Completion of Delivery Hero's stake sale to Uber, expected around six months after the 16 July 2026 agreement. Would confirm consolidation in food delivery and how it reshapes competition facing Just Eat Takeaway.
Key numbers
- Group revenue $10,848m, up 51% in FY26
- Takealot Group first full-year aEBIT profit, $11m
- $46bn returned via buybacks since June 2022
Named risks
- Material Tencent shock from China AI competition or regulation, largely outside management control.
- Just Eat Takeaway remains a margin drag rather than completing its turnaround by H1 FY27 (~Nov 2026).
- Takealot losing visible market share to Amazon, Temu and Shein in FY27 results.
- Buyback pace could slow if Prosus NAV discount narrows, affecting EPS trajectory.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon | contesting | Entered South Africa May 2024, recruited 10,000+ sellers within a year, competing with Takealot |
| Temu/Shein | gaining on | Cited as gaining share in South African fashion e-commerce as of 2026 |
| Uber/Delivery Hero | contesting | Direct food-delivery rivals to iFood and Just Eat Takeaway; Prosus divesting Delivery Hero stake to Uber, 2026-07-16 |
| Tencent (China AI/regulatory shifts) | contesting | Naspers/Prosus NAV heavily tied to Tencent's FY2025 revenue growth of 14% to RMB751.8bn |
Questions people ask
- Is Naspers profitable in 2026?
- Mixed picture: Naspers reported FY2026 group revenue of US$10,848m (up 51%) but an operating loss of US$217m for the year ended 31 March 2026, versus a US$124m operating profit in FY25. Core headline earnings, however, rose 24% to US$3,563m.
- Who owns Naspers?
- Naspers is JSE-listed (NPN) and widely held, with no single controlling shareholder. As of 2021 Naspers held a 56.92% stake in Prosus, while Prosus in turn owns roughly 49% of Naspers via a 2021 share-swap residual, creating a cross-holding structure.
- Is Takealot losing to Amazon?
- Amazon entered South Africa in May 2024 and recruited over 10,000 sellers in its first year, directly targeting Takealot's home turf. Despite this, Takealot posted its first-ever full-year adjusted operating profit of US$11m in FY2026 (year ended 31 March 2026), reversing a US$13m prior-year loss.
- Could AI replace Naspers/Prosus's e-commerce operations?
- Unlikely soon: Prosus owns a proprietary Large Commerce Model, launched October 2025 and trained on data from over 500 million users and 10 trillion+ tokens of transaction history, plus physical logistics and payments licenses that frontier LLMs lack. AI is being deployed to enhance, not replace, the business.
- What is Naspers's biggest competitor?
- Depends on segment: Amazon directly challenges Takealot in South African e-commerce (entered May 2024), while Uber Eats and Delivery Hero compete with iFood and Just Eat Takeaway in food delivery. Temu and Shein are also gaining share in fashion e-commerce as of 2026.
- Was the Just Eat Takeaway acquisition a good move for Prosus?
- Prosus agreed to acquire Just Eat Takeaway for €4.1bn in February 2025, with the deal becoming unconditional on 1 October 2025 and JET delisting 17 November 2025. As of mid-2026 it remains mid-turnaround under new leadership, flagged by analysts as a near-term operational focus area.
Timeline
- 2026-07-16Prosus gives irrevocable undertaking to sell residual Delivery Hero stake to Uber
- 2026-06-29Naspers FY2026 results: revenue $10,848m, operating loss $217m, Takealot first annual profit
- 2026-06-23Prosus launches ToqanClaw agentic AI platform for 5M+ merchant partners
- 2026-05Prosus sells 5% Delivery Hero stake to Aspex Management
- 2026-04Prosus sells 4.5% Delivery Hero stake to Uber
- 2026-02-04Prosus announces AWS partnership to scale AI infrastructure
- 2025-11-17Just Eat Takeaway delisted following Prosus takeover
- 2025-11OLX closes €1.1bn acquisition of La Centrale (France classifieds)
- 2025-10-10Prosus launches Large Commerce Model trained on 500M+ users
- 2025-10-01Prosus tender offer for Just Eat Takeaway becomes unconditional (€4.1bn deal)
Revision history
24 July 2026
First assessed. Defensible for now. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Update on Repurchase Programme and Claim It campaign, Naspers (2026-06-29)
- Naspers
- FY2026 Summary consolidated financial statement
- FY2026 Short-form release
- Naspers Ltd (NAPRF) Full Year 2026 Earnings Call Highlights (2026-06-29)
- Naspers FY2026 media release (2026-06-29)
- Takealot Group achieves first full-year adjusted operating profit (2026-06-29)
- Top African marketplaces (2026)
- FY2026 Results Webcast Deep Dive Deck
- NPN Number of Employees (2026-07-06)
- Prosus (PROSY) Number of Employees (2026-07-10)
- Final results of Prosus Offer for Just Eat Takeaway.com (2025-10-16)