Naspers to list assets in Amsterdam - bonanza for SA shareholders, taxman

An 18 month investigation to find a way of addressing the 40% discount between Naspers’s share price and the value of tis underlying assets reached a headline making conclusion today. The Group will hive off its global assets, including the $134bn stake in Tencent, into a new company that will be listed in Amsterdam. The new listing, to be done in the second half of this year, will create the third largest stock by value on Euronext and is set to attract $2bn in fresh investment via global index funds. The deal required approval by the South African Reserve Bank and will generate a R1bn windfall for the country in share transfer tax. In between engagements with investors and the international media (the deal made the front page of the Wall Street Journal and received blanket coverage in the Netherlands), Naspers CEO Bob van Dijk found time to take us through the rationale, explaining why he believes it will unlock masses of trapped value in a stock that has a 25% weighting the South Africa’s SWIX index.