South Africa's Naspers annual profit up 72 pct, helped by Tencent stake

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa media and e-commerce giant Naspers reported a hefty 72 percent rise in annual profit on Friday, thanks to a strong showing from its Chinese money spinner Tencent. Naspers, which owns about 30 percent of the Chinese technology firm Tencent, said core headline earnings totaled $2.5 billion, or 581 cents per share, in the year ended March compared with $1.5 billion, or 337 cents per share, a year earlier. Core headline EPS is Naspers' main profit measure that strips out non-operational and one-off items. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Edmund Blair)