Naspers dips back below R1,000
Media and Internet firm, Naspers, was facing a fall back below R1,000 in afternoon trade on the JSE on Thursday (8 May) as investors eye yet another large initial public offering (IPO) in the tech space.
Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba on Tuesday submitted the first filing for its upcoming IPO in the US.
Reuters noted that Alibaba, which powers 80% of all online commerce in the world’s second-largest economy, was expected to raise more than $15 billion, and even top the $16 billion pulled in by Facebook Inc when it listed in 2012.
However, the group’s initial filing valued the firm well below estimates, at around $109 billion.
BGC Partners noted that the Alibaba’s IPO papers valued the company at $109 billion, below initial valuation estimates of $150 billion to $200 billion.
Naspers’ recent declines have been closely aligned to Tencent, a Chinese media and entertainment company in which it owns 34%.
Tencent has been one of the major tech success stories in recent times. However, analysts have expressed concern over the valuations of tech stocks in recent months, with fears of another bubble.
Naspers declined 2.5%, or R25.50, to R1,000, as it dipped briefly back below the psychological one thousand figure in intraday trade, from a high of R1,354 achieved on 11 March, 2014.
The company has seen its market cap slide from approximately R565 billion, to R417 billion over the past two months.
It first breached the R1,000 mark in the beginning of December 2013, and briefly fell back to R992 on the last day of April. The group is still up 57% over the past year.
More on Alibaba and Naspers
Alibaba files $1-billion IPO in US
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