Naspers mulls reinvestment
The money comes from the group's video entertainment segment, which reported a 8% decline in total revenues for the six months to September to 1.6bn and a 43% decline in trading profit to $226m for the six months to September.
"It's hard to get access to foreign currency. Liquidity is not what it used to be. We are working on a variety of things, including whether to invest it in the local operations," said CEO Bob van Dijk.
He said whether Naspers decided to use the option of repatriation would be determined by the availability of foreign currency. Naspers said the trapped money remained exposed to further currency depreciation.
The group said the video and entertainment business had experienced a tough trading period as a result of the continued weakening of the currencies and economies in many African countries against the dollar. As the group bills in domestic currencies, the weakness of those currencies resulted in lower US dollar revenues.
The video entertainment business added 591,968 satellite payTV subscribers, while customers accessing payTV using the digital terrestrial platform grew by 149,875. The new customers increased MultiChoice's payTV subscribers to 11-million.
Source: Business Day.