Johannesburg - Naspers, Africa’s largest company by market value, invested a further $250 million in Indian Internet-travel group Ibibo to strengthen the firm’s market position in hotel bookings and add new technology.
“The Indian e-commerce market, and the online travel segment in particular, offers exciting growth prospects for us as a group,” Naspers CEO Van Dijk said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. The company has backed Ibibo since it was founded in 2007.
The investment in Indian Internet is the latest evolution of a South African business that started as a newspaper publisher and is now an investor in emerging-market startups including Hong Kong-based Tencent Holdings.
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The Cape Town-based company’s shares were little changed on Wednesday at R1 814.78, valuing Naspers at R796 billion ($51 billion).
BLOOMBERG