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Mint
3 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Prosus Chief Investment Officer Ervin Tu to Step Down
(Bloomberg) -- Prosus NV's President and Chief Investment Officer Ervin Tu will step down from his role after a nearly four-year tenure during which the South African-Dutch tech investment company restructured itself and appointed a new chief executive officer. Tu, who joined in August 2021, will stay on as an adviser, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. He had served as acting CEO before the appointment of Fabricio Bloisi last year. 'I've accomplished what I wanted to achieve, and the group is in very good hands,' Tu, 49, said in the statement. Tu had taken on the interim CEO role after Bob van Dijk stepped down in 2023, and was part of the team that attempted to simplify the group's complex ownership structure and reignite growth in its core business. The Amsterdam-based technology investor is majority-owned by Cape Town-based Naspers Ltd., which had spun off and listed Prosus in 2019, maintaining the same management team across both groups. Naspers was an early investor in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., and as the Tencent holding ballooned in value over the years, the investment distorted Naspers's share price. The split, giving Prosus control over the Tencent stake and the group's other technology investments, was an attempt to address that. Bloisi was appointed to the CEO role for both companies in 2024, joining from a Prosus portfolio company — Brazilian delivery business iFood. He will earn a $100 million bonus if he can double Prosus's market value by the end of June 2028 and maintain it for another year. Under Bloisi, the company is expanding through deals including the €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) acquisition of Just Eat NV and a $1.7 billion deal for online travel agency Corp. Prosus's shares have gained 36% since July 1. --With assistance from Rene Vollgraaff. (Updates with additional details throughout) More stories like this are available on
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Prosus' India strategy: Mix of investments & acquisitions
MUMBAI: Dutch technology investor Prosus will use a mix of investments and acquisitions to bolster its play in India, where it is seeking to build a portfolio worth $50 billion in the years to come, Group CEO Fabricio Bloisi, who took over the top job in July last year, said. The firm's approach will not be like that of a venture capital (VC) investor looking to close a series of deals at a faster clip. The strategy will rather be to build an ecosystem by investing in or acquiring companies within its core sectors, which can potentially open up opportunities for cross-selling among its portfolio firms and unlock faster growth for the broader portfolio. India, where Prosus will be allocating most of its resources alongside Europe and Latin America, is a market with a lot of potential, Bloisi said, adding that the company will be investing billions in India in the next few years. "We want to be less of an investor that has a pipeline of 100 companies with 5% (stake) in each one and more of an ecosystem that develops synergies between our own companies... We intend to invest more money in more companies. I will be disappointed if it's not a few billion," Bloisi told TOI in an interview. Prosus has invested $8.6 billion in India so far and has backed a clutch of startups, including Meesho, Swiggy, Urban Company, and Rapido. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Combata o zumbido no ouvido com este segredo revelado por especialistas! Assista Zumbido no ouvido Undo It also had a few failed bets like Byju's, which Bloisi said was the "worst problem" the company faced globally. However, the downfall of India's biggest edtech startup, once valued at $22 billion, did not change its investment perspective on the country. "Making wrong bets and correcting is a part of life. We lost a lot of money in Byju's, but we made much more money than we lost. Swiggy IPO was successful, and companies like Meesho and Swiggy have a lot of growth ahead... The $50 billion would be five or seven companies together, and probably four or five of these seven are already in our portfolio and will keep growing to get there," Bloisi said. Prosus will continue to prioritise investments in its core areas of food delivery, payments, e-commerce, experience (including services provided by firms like Urban Company), and AI. Bloisi, however, said that options in other sectors will not be closed, and it will be open to scouting for opportunities in emerging sectors such as clean tech and EV, although the company is unlikely to go big on these sectors as of now. Within AI, where Bloisi said India can do more, the company's strategy will be to back companies that are using AI to build their services, offer more use cases to consumers, and incorporate AI tools to make systems more efficient rather than betting on firms developing pure-play AI models. Meesho, for instance, he said, was able to reduce its costs by using AI, besides adding more languages to its app, enabling it to reach more consumers. "Most of the successful companies of the future are being built today on top of the (AI infrastructure) models. They (models) are just the first step... there's so much value to build, for example, marketing or video companies that are going to use AI models to offer services, and these are the type of companies we expect to invest in," Bloisi said, voicing the need for calibrated regulation. Regulating a sector like AI, which is still nascent and evolving, will slow innovation. "There will be so much change in AI, and it's not a local thing. It's a global play. There are Indian, American, Brazilian models. I am not supportive of AI regulation," Bloisi said. Prosus expects five companies from its India portfolio to go public this year, but Bloisi declined to name them. Urban Company and BlueStone have already filed draft IPO papers with Sebi, while some, like Meesho, are preparing to list. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
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Business Standard
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Prosus CEO Bloisi sets sights on $50 bn India portfolio with AI focus
With high-frequency sectors like food delivery and fintech at the core, Prosus plans new investments, acquisitions and AI integration to scale its India operations Peerzada Abrar Bengaluru Listen to This Article Fabricio Bloisi, Group CEO of global tech investor Prosus, said the firm plans to grow the value of its India portfolio fivefold to $50 billion in the coming years, backed by a few billion dollars in fresh investment. The strategy centres on deepening its presence in core sectors and scaling its ecosystem-focused approach. 'My intention is to invest a few billion dollars more in India,' Bloisi told Business Standard during a media roundtable. Brazilian entrepreneur Bloisi, who succeeded Bob van Dijk as CEO in May 2024, emphasised that Prosus' investment strategy in India remains focused on ecosystem-driven businesses and innovation.
Mint
21-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Prosus to take PE style bets, India one of three focus areas: CEO Bloisi
Global investor Prosus NV, which has backed Swiggy, Rapido and Urban Company, plans to reorganize its business by focusing on three key regions including India, Fabricio Bloisi, its newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) said. Prosus, earlier called Naspers, will focus on payments and food startups, Bloisi said in an interview, adding the investor will adopt a private equity-style model of investing in select companies, moving away from the venture capital model of investing in too many. 'India is a very important market for us at Prosus. It is, in fact, our second biggest focus area," said Bloisi, who plans to narrow Prosus's geographical focus to Latin America, Europe and India. 'We will invest many more billion dollars in India in the near future," he added. Prosus has so far invested $9 billion in India. A little over 10 months ago, Bloisi took over as CEO of Prosus, which had over $152.427 billion of assets in 2024. Earlier, he was chief executive and chairman of the group's Brazilian food delivery business, iFood. Under his leadership, iFood grew to be the leading food delivery business in Latin America, delivering over 100 million orders per month and is highly profitable. Also read: Mint Exclusive: JBL maker Harman to sell controlling stake in India unit Building businesses Prosus has pumped nearly $30 million into SaaS ride-hailing platform Rapido in February this year. Last year, it also made a $100 million investment Vastu Housing Finance and acquired a 10.65% stake in supply chain financing startup Mintifi. Globally, Prosus recently led a $15.7million funding round Egypt-based Thndr, an investment platform. It also led a $13.5 million investment round in Spanish AI company Luzia, a personal assistant app as well as a $4.3 million pre-Series A round in Zest Equity, a UAE-based digital infrastructure platform meant for simplifying private market transactions. According to Bloisi, the firm does not want to do many deals that are small and don't leverage its ecosystem. 'When we focus more and get a new company here in India, we think about how we can get Swiggy and PayU to help this company through data, cross-sell and cost reduction," Bloisi said. Bigger deals 'We plan on doing bigger deals in India, where we will be taking more than 5% stake in businesses. That's definitely our intention. We can go up to 15% to 20% to even 25% in these companies. We're also looking for many buyouts. We're talking to companies here, we want to do more in India and invest more," said Bloisi, who is in Bengaluru for the company's annual conference. Globally, the ball has been set rolling. Prosus has already made several acquisitions this year, including a $4.3 billion all-cash public offer to Just Eat Takeaway, a Dutch multinational online food ordering and delivery company. Also read: After Pebble, Mensa looks to sell its Renee stake The firm, which was an early investor in companies such as PayU, Swiggy, Rapido, Meesho, and Urban Company, is now going to increasingly focus on fintech and food delivery as verticals which will make up the foundation of its India strategy. Taking money off the table Prosus has previously clocked stellar exits from its investments in companies such as Flipkart, MakeMyTrip and Goibibo. After the mega public listing of food delivery startup Swiggy last year, Prosus is planning to exit via IPOs in Urban Company and Meesho over the next 12-18 months. The company is rallying behind AI and generative AI to help its businesses in India and other parts of the world grow, he said. For India, Prosus's ambitions are high. 'We don't have $50 billion worth of businesses outside of US and China today. We see such big businesses coming out of India going forward, and we want to help build those businesses," Bloisi said. '$50 billion and above' 'I'm not thinking about creating a $10 to $15 billion tech company in India. I'm thinking about how we can create a $50 billion strong Indian tech player," he added. This, he says, can be done by consolidating businesses here and doing so-called bolt-on acquisitions on existing portfolio companies. 'We can consolidate the market with the intention of continuing to invest many billions in India." Also read: Rebel Foods gets $25 mn from Qatar Investment Authority for restaurant expansion India has been a tough market for financial services investors given strict regulations on fintech companies. Asked whether over-regulation is a dampener, Bloisi said, 'In the payments business, there is almost a requirement that some of it has to be regulated. I think PayU weathered that well and went through the demands of the regulator, and today is well-positioned. That said, we have to avoid the chance that because we're over-regulating, companies choose to move much slower," said Bloisi. 'Some areas like credit need to be regulated, without which there can be constant cycles of a 'bubble, then a collapse," Bloisi added.
Daily Maverick
11-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
From São Paulo to Soweto — how Prosus and Lesaka are defining growth on the JSE
Prosus and Lesaka present a tale of two tech companies and their differing approach to growth Growth stocks aren't very common on the JSE. This is unfortunately a function of the broader economic situation that we've been in for many years now, where South Africa just isn't a supportive environment for high-growth companies. And where they do exist, they often have offshore exposure as the major source of excitement! An example of this is Prosus-Naspers. Although it does own some South African businesses, that's not where the focus is for group investors. It's all about the opportunities in places such as China, India and South America. With Fabricio Bloisi at the helm, Prosus could be described as building a 'non-US' platform business that takes advantage of various different e-commerce models. Given the questions being asked at the moment about whether US exceptionalism is still a thing, that seems like an appealing strategy. All talk and no action doesn't cut it though, so shareholders are focusing on whether Prosus can transform from an incoherent group that was built with a spray-and-pray acquisition strategy into a sensible portfolio of profitable, successful businesses. So far, so good – in a letter to Prosus shareholders, Bloisi noted that the group expects to achieve more than $435-million (R7.9-billion) in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the 2025 financial year, which is in excess of the target of $400-million (R7.3-billion). Within that growth story, there are pockets of particularly high growth, like OLX (adjusted EBIT up more than 50%) and iFood (adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation – EBITDA – more than doubled). There are also longer-term plays to help the group reach its target of 'many, many billions' rather than just millions when it comes to adjusted EBIT. India is perhaps the most interesting one on the table at the moment, with Prosus having invested in various platform businesses in the region. And of course, let's not forget the potential of Tencent in China. I have a long position in Prosus as I have really been enjoying the narrative coming from Bloisi since he joined the group. It's encouraging to see the delivery on promises thus far, supporting a share price increase of more than 30% in the past year. This has also been highly supportive of the local broad market index, as Naspers is the largest constituent of the Top 40 and Prosus is the sixth largest. Together, they contribute roughly 17.5% of the index. Although the underlying growth might not be happening in South Africa, local investors are certainly benefiting from it. It's wait-and-see for Lesaka Technologies Another example of a locally listed growth stock is Lesaka Technologies, best described as a multiproduct fintech group that is particularly focused on SMEs and micro-merchants. This group isn't just locally listed, it is also focused mainly on South Africa and the broader continent in its strategic thinking. Although this is exciting, it's also not easy. It doesn't have a cash cow in the form of Tencent, and it certainly doesn't enjoy the scale or fortress balance sheet of Prosus-Naspers. Lesaka has a great deal of debt and a need to scale at pace to get on the right side of that debt. This financial risk is an overhang for the share price, with Lesaka down nearly 19% in the past 12 months despite posting decent growth in the underlying businesses. South African investors aren't particularly in love with the concept of adjusted EBITDA and how this gets used by growth stocks to tell a story around a scaling platform that isn't able to generate net profits yet owing to its funding profile. In the latest quarter, Lesaka reported adjusted EBITDA of R237-million, up 29%. It also reported a headline loss of $22-million or R400-million (note the currency here), much worse than $4-million (R73-million) a year ago. Although it is projecting positive net income in 2026, the market is taking a wait-and-see approach on this one Debt pressures certainly aren't stopping Lesaka from investing for the future. It can't sit on its hands, as the group hasn't scaled to a level that is sustainable. This is why group capital expenditure as a percentage of group-adjusted EBITDA has been between 35% and 57% over the past year, most of which relates to point-of-sale devices and cash vaults. The market will keep a close eye on the trend in adjusted EBITDA margin, particularly as EBITDA is ultimately what services the debt. It doesn't help to invest heavily to support revenue growth unless that revenue turns into profits. In Lesaka's merchant division, net revenue was up 58% but adjusted EBITDA was up just 7%, so there's quite a lag there. The consumer division was thankfully the other way around in terms of margin trend, with revenue growth of 32% supporting EBITDA growth of 65%. Lifting our heads to the broader trend in the group is a worthwhile exercise. Through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth, Lesaka has scaled from revenue of R1.3-billion in the 2022 financial year to guided revenue of R5.2-billion–R5.6-billion in the current financial year. Group adjusted EBITDA has moved from a negative R328-million to guided positive earnings of R0.9-billion–R1-billion. The question is whether the incremental adjusted EBITDA margin is lucrative enough. Assuming it hits the upper end of FY25 guidance for the sake of the maths, it would have grown revenue by R4.3-billion and EBITDA by more than R1.3-billion from FY22–F25, which is an incremental adjusted EBITDA margin of 30%. As platform businesses go, that's not as exciting as one would hope. Fintech models don't always enjoy the highest margins, as much of their business is built around payments solutions that are hotbeds of competition among banking groups and other fintech companies. Lesaka will need to demonstrate to the market that it can achieve consistently strong EBITDA margins, all while scaling quickly enough to overcome the substantial net debt pile of R2.3-billion. Building a genuine market disrupter isn't easy. DM
