The company plans to release its profit and loss figures later in the day.

The core headline earnings of the financial year ended March 31 came in at $3.7 billion, compared with $4.9 billion reported in a year-ago period.

"The macro-economic and severe geopolitical challenges in the second half of the year have presented significant headwinds," Chief Financial Officer Basil Sgourdos said in a statement.

Prosus and South Africa's Naspers, which owns a controlling stake in the Dutch company, said they were launching an open-ended share repurchasing programme, under which they would sell down the massive 28.9% stake Prosus holds in Chinese software giant Tencent, owner of WeChat, worth more than $100 billion.

They also announced the sale of a stake in Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, which had been distributed to owners of Tencent, raising proceeds $3.7 billion.

The core headline figures were in line with indications the company had given in a June 15 trading statement saying it expected underlying profit to fall by 14-21% due to higher investment costs in the e-commerce companies it operates and lower dividends from investments such as Tencent.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)