Finance

Naspers CEO resigns

Luke Fraser

 ·18 Sep 2023

Naspers and Prosus have announced that Bob van Dijk has stepped down from his role as CEO and his positions on the boards of both companies following a mutual agreement.

Van Dijk’s leave is effective today, 18 September, but he has agreed to assist with the transition on a consultancy basis until 30 September 2024.

He was the CEO of Naspers since 2014 and Prosus since its listing in 2019, and the group has credited him for turning it into a global consumer internet company, which created significant value for shareholders.

Ervin Tu – the group’s Chief Investment Officer – will take over the role as interim Chief Executive of Naspers and Prosus.

“The group’s strategic goals remain unchanged, and it is on target to deliver on its commitments, including achieving consolidated e-commerce trading profit during the first half of FY25 and continuing the open-ended share repurchase programme,” the group said.

The group said its interim results will be published on 29 November 2023 and would further expand on the abovementioned goals.

Financial pain

The resignation comes amid a challenging time for the group, with the group’s operating losses growing from US$985 million (approx R18 billion) in FY22 to US$1.38 billion (approx R25 billion) in FY23.

“The operating environment in the fiscal year ended 31 March 2023 (FY23) was characterised by significant geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty. Amid that uncertainty, we acted decisively to strengthen our financial footing and deliver value for shareholders,” the group said.

Its headline earnings also dropped from US$249 million (approx R4.5 billion) to US$1.3 billion (approx R24 billion), which the group said was due to lower profitability across its associates and the more significant operating losses of its consolidated businesses.

“This was partially offset by reduced share-based compensation expenses related to the remeasurement of the group’s cash-settled scheme and no grants to executive directors, as well as lower net finance costs due to increased interest income from cash balances.”

More specifically, Takelot’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew 13%, with its revenue also up 12% in rand terms and excluding mergers and acquisitions.

That said, the e-commerce platform incurred a loss of US$22 million (R400 million), and its trading margin went down -3%.

It said that this was due to declining consumer demand due to growing inflation, high interest rates, load shedding, growing fuel costs and global supply-chain constraints.

Below are some of the group’s overall key financial results from FY23:

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