Naspers has received enough votes from shareholders to proceed with an Amsterdam listing of assets including a R1.9-trillion stake in Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings.
Africa’s largest company by market value secured sufficient backing after a vote in Cape Town on Friday, according to company secretary Gillian Kisbey-Green. Naspers needed at least 75% of investors to endorse the spin-off, which is scheduled for 11 September.
Naspers will retain a 73% majority stake in the new company, known as Prosus, which will also have investments in Internet firms from Germany and the US to India and Brazil. The move is intended to ease the company’s dominance of Johannesburg’s stock exchange and close a valuation gap between the Tencent stake and Naspers as a whole, which is worth R1.5-trillion.
“This listing wont fix everything,” chief financial officer Basil Sgourdos said at the investor meeting, in reference to the discount. “We have a lot more work to do.”
Naspers shares declined 0.9% to R3 399.25 as of 2.38pm in Johannesburg. Shareholders were expected to support the listing, analysts said earlier this week. — (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP