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Naspers facing major shareholder exit

June 20, 2019

By Chris Forrester

South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) is being advised to cut dramatically its shareholding in the nation’s biggest company, Naspers.

Naspers has done well for the GEPF, but the fund is now being advised that having most of its Rand 245 billion (€15.1bn) stake in one company means that it is over-exposed. Its holding in Naspers represents about 16 per cent of Naspers, and that stake absorbs about 21 per cent of the overall GEPF.

However, Naspers has grown 72-fold since 2004, helped by the explosive growth of China’s Tencent Holdings and the massive increase in value has pushed Naspers own value on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to a thumping 1.53 Trillion Rand and turned Naspers into Africa’s most valuable company.

Naspers is currently offloading some of its various investments, not least the Multichoice broadcasting business which is now separately listed. Naspers is also spinning off Tencent into a new, separately listed business in July.

Categories: Articles, Business, Funding, IPO, M&A