Prosus and Naspers CEO Fabricio Bloisi says the group met its ambitious financial guidance to investors for the 2026 financial year.
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Naspers and its Europe-based internet business Prosus’ share prices fell sharply on the JSE on Tuesday morning after CEO Fabricio Bloisi warned that adjusted earnings for iFood in Brazil would reduce in 2027 because of additional investment required to take on competitors.
Naspers shares traded 5.69% lower on the JSE on Tuesday morning at R839.93, while Prosus shares fell 5.49% to R748.42.
Writing in a letter to shareholders, Bloisi, citing increased competition in the Brazil market, said, “Late in FY26, we stepped up investment (in iFood) and began regrowing market share. We will now accelerate our investment in iFood to take the offensive to stimulate demand and build out and expand successful products…”
This investment would reduce 2027 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to between $100-150 million, he said.
He said, however, that iFood was performing “exceptionally well” and had delivered its 2026 targets. In just a year, its advertising platform had evolved into a meaningful EBITDA contributor, and iFood Pago, a digital bank for restaurants, had reached scale with near triple-digit revenue growth and profitability.
iFood’s meal vouchers business now served over 1 million users and was growing over 100% year-on-year; the in-store business was boosting restaurant partners' earnings, and iFood was also growing strongly in new categories, including pets, beverages, and pharmaceuticals.
The increased investment in iFood was among the group’s priorities for the new 2027 financial year, with other plans including a return to growth at Just Eat Takeaway (JET) in Europe by year-end and more share buybacks.
Bloisi said the group’s AI roadmap was also a particular focus, “including our large commerce model, AI agents, and the more than 20 AI life assistants we're building.”
On the share buybacks, he said they would continue to repurchase shares at a $5 billion annual run rate to bring the total returned to shareholders to $50bn across Prosus and Naspers in four years.
He said the group had met all its financial guidance targets during the 2026 financial year - the “very strong” results were expected to be released next month. He said the 2026 year had been one of evolving the group culture, setting strategy, and raising the bar for results.
“We hit the ambitious guidance of +$7.3bn in revenue and +$1.1bn in Ecommerce adjusted EBITDA (excluding JET and La Centrale). All of our ecosystems are now profitable, and our free cash flow, excluding Tencent, continues to grow,” he said.
“FY27 is a year of execution, both on operations and on delivering innovation - we expect to position Prosus as a global tech company poised to ride the next growth curve of technology, and we expect to have significant progress to share over the coming year,” he said.
Despegar grew revenue and profits strongly in the second half of the 2026 year. It continued to grow approximately 30% in Brazil, where now 17% of its net revenue came from iFood referrals, “much higher than our guidance, and we are just getting started,” said Bloisi.
In Europe, OLX grew revenue strongly, expanding margins and hitting its aEBITDA targets of more than $450m. As part of OLX Group, La Centrale was progressing well.
“For the first time in France, you have the full picture for cars in one place – used, new, leasing. OLX has invested in AI for years, as showcased in February at the first-ever ClaimAI,” said Bloisi.
JET was operating at a higher level of execution, with a new management model and a rapidly evolving culture. While overall order volumes declined 7% year-on-year, “we are scaling successful market tests, with some cities already growing over 25%.”
“After four years of decline, we expect to return JET to order and revenue growth by the end of the year — targeting +$3.6bn in revenue and +$100m in aEBITDA,” he said.
In India, PayU was now profitable and serving as the connector for the other assets and investments in the region, including Rapido, Swiggy, Ixigo, Urban Company, Meesho, and others. These businesses were increasingly benefiting from being part of the Prosus ecosystem.
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