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JOHANNESBURG, April 8 (Reuters) - South African e-commerce group Naspers said on Wednesday a number of its divisions had been hurt by the coronavirus outbreak, but that it was too early to estimate the overall impact on the group’s performance.
While the company said some of its businesses, which stretch from Brazil to India spanning everything from food delivery and fintech, had taken an initial knock, it had sufficient liquidity to both weather the storm and seek out new opportunities.
“The size of the impact on operations will vary across sector and geography,” it said. “The group intends to continue to invest in its businesses to position them for future recovery.”
Naspers said it had more than $4 billion in net cash and a $2.5 billion undrawn revolving credit facility in place at the end of its financial year on March 31, adding it had no debt maturing until 2025.
Its classifieds business had seen a decline in traffic to its marketplace, it said, while its payments and fintech business - of which India accounts for 50% - had seen a significant decline in transaction volumes.
In food delivery, while demand was higher this was often hard to match with supply as restaurants were barred from operating in some markets.
Nationwide lockdowns and restrictions to stem the spread of the virus also limited the activities of some of its online retail businesses, like South African e-commerce site Takealot.
A more than 30% stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent - the jewel in Naspers’ crown - continued to grow, however, and seemed to be emerging relatively well, it said.
The company’s shares closed 0.93% lower on Wednesday. (Reporting by Emma Rumney. Editing by Jane Merriman, Kirsten Donovan)
