Naspers - poor show

In my opinion, the Naspers Board has today displayed a total disregard for shareholders and the savings industry in South Africa and their actions only justify Naspers’ deep discount to the value of their listed investments. Naspers’ announcement to sell 190m shares in Tencent represents only 3.5% of their holding and is equal to only 10 days of trade, yet they have publicly committed to sell no more shares in Tencent for 3 years? To make such a commitment without any regard to valuation or discount is surely irresponsible and not in the best interests of Naspers shareholders. Furthermore, rather than use the proceeds to re-purchase Naspers shares and close the discount, they have chosen to spend the proceeds on quite possibly, frivolous investments like “online food delivery”, (where not even Ocado, delivering high end produce to wealthy Brits can generate free cash flow) and “fintech,” possibly the most competitive investment space on the planet currently. It is common for large South African unit trusts to have more than 10% invested in Naspers shares so savers and pensioners unfortunately look to be paying the price from these poor decisions by the Naspers Board, a Board which is safe from being called to account over this due to their control structure - yet another example of the price of poor corporate governance.