Naspers’s Swiggy deal may save the JSE on Friday

Naspers is likely to rebound on Friday, tracking its 31%-holding in Tencent which was up 3.85% to HK$313.20 following Thursday's announcement that it was backing its parent's latest round of financing Indian food delivery service Swiggy.

Naspers issued a media release on Thursday saying it was contributing $660m of a $1bn “series H” round of investing into Swiggy.

Thursday's media release did not provide the total amount Naspers has invested in Swiggy since leading an $80m “series E” investment in April 2017, or what its shareholding in the Indian food delivery service amounts to.

The top 40 index's largest constituent said new investors joining the latest financing round included Tencent, Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management.

Swiggy's existing backers participating in this round of investing include DST Global, Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management.

“Naspers’ substantial investment in Swiggy, as well as its recent investment in Byju’s, leading a $540m funding round, demonstrates the company’s commitment to India across multiple sectors,” its media release said.

The group's other Indian ventures include online classifieds business OLX, online travel company MakeMyTrip and payments company PayU. 

The annual loss in Naspers's share price was 19% at yesterday's closing price of R2,802.46. It peaked at R4,142.99 in November 2017, and slumped to R2,370 at the end of October.

Other than Naspers, the JSE is in for another bad day, judging from Asian markets rattled by the resignation of US defence secretary James Mattis.

Tokyo's Topix index was down 2.16% and Sydney's ASX 200 was down 1.3%.

BHP, however, was up 1.5% to A$33.10. With the JSE's two biggest companies likely to rise on Friday, the local bourse may escape the global rout.

The rand was trading at R14.35/$, R16.42/€ and R18.15/£ at 7am.

laingr@businesslive.co.za