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.
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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.
Tencent Holdings’ quarterly earnings beat estimates, boosted by gains on investments, giving shareholders much-needed assurance the Chinese gaming behemoth is bound for a revival.
Chinese regulators have sketched out new requirements for videogame approvals following a year of scrutiny.
A swathe of the world is adopting China’s vision for a tightly controlled Internet over the unfettered American approach, a stunning ideological coup for Beijing that would have been unthinkable less than a decade ago.
Apple is reportedly spending “hundreds of millions of dollars” to obtain new videogames for its upcoming Apple Arcade subscription service.
Naspers, the most valuable company on the JSE, will prioritise investments in classifieds, financial technology and food — activities that it could possibly hive off with separate share listings in the right circumstances.
The perennial worry about European technology is that there isn’t a consumer-facing giant to rival the size of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon.com. In one fell swoop, it’s about to get one. Sort of.
Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk has been working for years to solve a problem rivals might envy – getting investors to value the South African firm nearer to its $133-billion stake in Tencent. A plan for a Dutch listing is his boldest step yet.
Naspers wants to spend about $1-billion in India this year as it scours the globe for investments that can replicate its blockbuster bet on China’s Tencent, a person familiar with the matter said.