Naspers injects R800 million into Arab e-commerce site
Naspers, the listed internet and media group says it has invested an additional US$75 million (R818 million) in the Souq Group, an online retailer based in the UAE.
Shares in Naspers advanced 5.5% in midday trade on the JSE on Monday, to R1,219, taking the group’s market cap to R510 billion.
Naspers currently has a 35.8% interest in the e-commerce site, having initially acquired a 29.6% interest in Souq – which has operations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait – for R319 million in cash in October 2012.
In June 2013, it acquired an additional 6.1% interest in Souq for R296 million in cash.
“We have invested another US$75 million in the Souq Group, the market leader in the fast-growing e-commerce market in MENA (Middle East and North Africa). This forms part of our broader strategy to build e-commerce businesses in developing countries around the world,” Naspers told BusinessTech.
“The additional funding into Souq Group will be used to deepen their technology investment and to focus further on innovation to provide customers with a unique and advanced mobile experience, a personalized user experience, and unprecedented delivery and customer service quality. Souq Group will also invest in its talent pool.”
In February, Naspers announced that CEO, Koos Bekker would be stepping down, and will be succeeded by Bob van Dijk, currently Naspers’s most senior e-commerce chief, in April.
Among other experience, he headed up eBay Germany, that group’s biggest market outside the US, and was COO of Schibsted’s Classifieds.
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