Naspers shareholders will gather in Cape Town on Friday to vote on the proposed spinoff and Amsterdam listing of the company\u2019s international technology interests.<\/p>\n
Africa\u2019s largest company by market value is creating a new entity called Prosus NV to hold assets including a 31% stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. that\u2019s worth about $125 billion.<\/p>\n
Naspers will retain a majority stake in the new group, which will also have investments in internet firms from Germany and the US to India and Brazil.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s happening today?<\/strong><\/p>\n Naspers investors will vote on whether to approve the listing, which involves the issue of new shares that will be converted to Prosus stock.<\/p>\n At least 75% of shareholders must support the plan for the listing to go ahead as scheduled on 11 September.<\/p>\n “The company has consulted with investors extensively over the past few months,” Peter Takaendesa, a fund manager at Mergence Investments in Cape Town, said by text message.<\/p>\n “I think the market has a better understanding of the potential benefits of the\u00a0 Proses listing. Investors are therefore unlikely to oppose.”<\/p>\n The vote will take place immediately after Naspers\u2019s annual general meeting, which starts at 11h15.<\/p>\n Why is Prosus being created?<\/strong><\/p>\n Naspers has two main reasons for pushing ahead with the spinoff.<\/p>\n First, the media, technology and internet company has outgrown its listing on Johannesburg\u2019s stock exchange, where it makes up about 25% of the main index.<\/p>\n That\u2019s forced many South African shareholders to sell down the stock due to restrictions on their funds\u2019 exposure to a single company.<\/p>\n A new listing on Euronext is expected to attract new investors, particularly in Europe, while easing Naspers\u2019s dominance of the JSE.<\/p>\n The second reason is that Naspers is valued at a discount to its stake in Tencent — $98 billion vs $125 billion at current levels.<\/p>\n Separating assets into different entities may help investors revalue different parts of the company\u2019s portfolio and ultimately narrow the valuation gap.<\/p>\n To that end, Naspers also spun off its pan-African pay-TV service, MultiChoice Ltd., earlier this year.<\/p>\n Naspers\u2019s Prosus deal \u201cshould help to decrease the discount to the see-through value of its Tencent stake,\u201d said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Davies.<\/p>\n How did Naspers come to own Tencent?<\/strong><\/p>\n Naspers, whose name is derived from the Afrikaans words for National Press, started as a newspaper publisher in 1915 before adding TV and internet in the latter part of the century.<\/p>\n Former Chief Executive Officer Koos Bekker — now the chairman — invested in Tencent as a startup in 2001, a blockbuster move that\u2019s propelled Naspers\u2019s valuation and international reach ever since.<\/p>\n Bekker made way for current CEO Bob Van Dijk in 2014.<\/p>\n
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