TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod spoke to Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk about the group’s acquisition, through Naspers Foundry, of a stake in SweepSouth, the controversy over the group’s dual shareholding structure, and more.
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Naspers has elected to cancel and reschedule a meeting of shareholders to approve the listing of its international Internet assets in Europe, with the target date for the listing now set for September.
Naspers has made the first investment through its new Naspers Foundry start-up fund, buying a stake in Internet-based domestic cleaning service SweepSouth for R30-million.
Naspers’s biggest shareholder is considering whether to reduce its R245-billion stake in Africa’s biggest company because of concern it’s overexposed to a single stock, sources said.
Naspers, Africa’s largest company by market value, said its expects earnings grew by as much as a third in the latest financial year.
Slack Technologies is expected to be valued by investors at $16-billion to $17-billion when it lists its shares publicly next week, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mega-cap technology and Internet stocks rallied on Monday, extending a recent advance as concerns eased over global trade tensions.
When Naspers lists in Amsterdam, it will bring with it a dual shareholding structure to match or even exceed the worst practices of tech behemoths such as Facebook or Google parent Alphabet.
Naspers may be moving most of its Internet businesses to a new listing in Amsterdam, but the Cape Town-based technology investor is at pains to show it’s not abandoning South Africa.
Naspers will list on its consumer Internet business on Amsterdam’s Euronext exchange on 17 July, subject to market conditions, in a bid to unlock shareholder value.