Naspers

Naspers Limited

Naspers headquarters inForeshore, Cape Town
Company type	Public
Traded as	JSE:NPN LSE:NPSN
Industry	Internet,E-commerce,fintech, food delivery
Founded	12 May 1915(1915-05-12)
Headquarters	Cape Town , South Africa
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Koos Bekker(Chair) Fabricio Bloisi(CEO) Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa(CEO, South Africa)
Revenue	US$22.1 billion(FY 2020)
Operating income	US$3.7 billion(FY 2020)
Total assets	US$36.3 billion(FY 2020)
Total equity	US$29.93 billion(FY 2020)
Owner	Prosus(49%) Public Investment Corporation(14%) Koos Bekker
Subsidiaries	Prosus(56.92%) Media24 Takealot.com Naspers Foundry
Website	www.naspers.com

Naspers Limitedis a South Africanmultinationalinternet,technologyand multimedia holding companyheadquarteredinCape Town,with interests in online retail, publishing andventure capitalinvestment. Naspers' principal shareholder is itsDutch listedinvestment subsidiaryProsus,which owns approximately 49% of its parent as part of across ownershipstructure.

Founded in 1915 by attorney W. A. Hofmeyr, Naspers was the largest publishing company inSouth Africathroughout the 20th century with interests across newspapers, magazines and books. In the 1980s, the company began to diversify, launching a subscription television service and investing in markets outside of South Africa for the first time.

In 2001, Naspers made an early investment in Chinese technology firmTencentand became increasingly focused on the global consumer internet sector. In 2019, Naspers listed its global internet investment business unit Prosus (including a 31% stake in Tencent) on Euronext Amsterdam.

Naspers currently owns a 56.92% stake in Prosusand wholly ownsMedia24(Africa's largest publishing company),Takealot.com(South Africa's largest online retailer) and Naspers Foundry, a South African focused venture capital fund.

History

Founding and Afrikaner nationalism

In 1914, twelve years after the end of theSecond Boer Warwhich had devastated most of South Africa and left most Afrikaners impoverished and subject to theBritish Empire,a group of prominentCapeAfrikanersdecided at a meeting inStellenboschto form a publishing company that would supportAfrikaner nationalismin theUnion of South Africa.This meeting led to W. A. Hofmeyr, a well-known Cape lawyer andNational Partyorganizer; foundingDe Nasionale Pers Beperkt(National Press Ltd) in 1915 as a publisher of newspapers and magazines.The firm's name was commonly shortened toNaspers(DeNasionalePersBeperk), the contraction eventually becoming used even by the company itself.

Naspers launched with the support ofJannie Marais,a prominent Stellenbosch farmer,Jan Christiaan Smuts,Louis Botha,and National Party founding presidentJ.B.M. Hertzog.Naspers was strongly supportive of the National Partyand began publishing the Afrikaans-language dailyDe Burger(later renamedDie Burger) in June 1915, followed by its first magazine,De Huisgenoot(laterDie Huisgenoot) in 1916.

Domestic expansion (1917–1986)

In 1917, Naspers bought the weeklyBloemfontein-based Afrikaan newspaperHet Volksblad(nowVolksblad), the first expansion beyond the Cape Province for the company.In 1925, Die Volksblad started publishing daily. In 1937, it startedDie Oosterligin the Eastern Cape.Also in 1937,Nasionale Persset up the companyVoortrekkerpersin the Transvaal to support the National Party in Transvaal by publishingDie Transvaler.Initially the Cape National Party tried to control the extremism of the National Party in the Transvaal by appointingHendrik Verwoerdas the paper's first editor but he would side with Transvaal branch andNationale Persgave up editorial control in 1939.In order to combat the influence ofAlbert Hertzogin the Transvaal National Party,Nationale Persintroduced a more enlightened Sunday newspaper in 1965 in the province called theDie Beeldin competition to theDagbreek.By 1970, these two papers, the latter owned byPerskor,to merge into a paper called theRapportmanaged by both groups.In 1965, Naspers launched their first English-language magazineFairlady.In 1974, the Afrikaans newspaperBeeldbegan publishing daily for the Johannesburg market.

Naspers entered the South African general and educational book publishing markets in 1918, initially publishing exclusively inAfrikaans.The company expanded to English-language titles in 1919 andXhosain 1922. Naspers spun off its book publishing operations in 1950 into a separate business,Nasionale Boekhandel.In 1963, Naspers recommenced educational publishing operations through subsidiary Nasou.

In 1973, Naspers took back control of Nasionale Boekhandel, before acquiring another publishing house Human & Rousseau in 1977. Naspers continued to develop its book publishing business during the 1980s, forming the Afrikaans-language book club Leserskring in 1979 and the English-language book club Leisure Hour.In 1986, Naspers acquired publisher JL van Schaik.

In 1984, Naspers acquired Drum Publications, publisher of the Sunday newspaperCity Pressand weekly magazinesDrumandTrue Love & Family,titles focused on a black readership.

Diversification, IPO and international expansion (1986–2003)

In 1986, Naspers formed a partnership with other South African publishing companies and launchedpay-TVserviceM-Net.M-Net proved successful and, with sister companiesMultiChoiceandM-Web,steadily expanded its operations both in South Africa and internationally throughout the 1990s.

In 1994, Naspers became publicly listed on theJohannesburg Stock Exchangein South Africa.The company also obtained a Level I American Depository Receipt listing on theLondon Stock Exchange.In 1998, the company formally changed its name to Naspers Limited.

Naspers became increasingly focused on digital businesses; launching South African web portal Media24 and online retailer Kalahari.com in 1998 and Chinese-focused web portal SportCN in 2000. In May 2001, Naspers purchased 46.5 percent of Chinese internet companyTencent,owner ofWeChat,and an array of fintech apps and mobile games, from early investors includingPCCW(the owner ofNow TV) andIDG Capital.The investment has been referred to as one of the most successful venture capital deals of all time.Making Naspers the most valuable publicly traded business in Africa by 2017.

In 2003, Naspers took full ownership of subscription television business M-Net and its sister companies MultiChoice and M-Web, integrating their extensive operations across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.Naspers also launched new publishing ventures in Nigeria and Hungary in 2003.

Online ventures (2003–2015)

With the success of the investment in Tencent, Naspers became an investor in a number of consumer internet startups. In January 2007 Naspers purchased a 30% share of Russia's largest internet companyVK (company)(formerly Mail.ru Group) for $165 million.

Naspers had a particular focus on India, investing more than $4 billion from 2014 to 2019,across multiple sectors, including intoByjuandibibo.In December 2018, Naspers invested $1 billion into Indian online food ordering and delivery serviceSwiggy,the largest single investment made, outside of China, into a food tech company.

Consolidation (2015–present)

In 2015, Naspers merged its South African–focused Kalahari.com online retail business with market leaderTakealot.com,acquiring a 46% stake in the merged company and creating South Africa's largest online retailer.By 2018, Naspers owned 96% of Takealot.com.

In December 2016, Naspers announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell telecommunications company M-Web toInternet Solutions(a subsidiary of Japanese telecommunications conglomerateNippon Telegraph and Telephone), pending approval by the South African competition authorities.On 9 May 2017, it was announced that the South African competition authorities approved the proposed sale of M-Web, with 31 May 2017 being the effective commencement date.

In March 2018 Naspers sold part of its stake in Tencent, raising some $10 billion to fund other investments. At the time, its initial investment of $32 million in Tencent was valued at over $175 billion.

Naspers' video entertainment business was spun off asMultiChoice Group,on 27 February 2019, represented as MCG on theJohannesburg Stock Exchange.Shares in Multichoice Group were unbundled to Naspers shareholders, with Naspers retaining no stake in the newly listed company.

In 2019 Naspers listed its global internet investment business onEuronext AmsterdamasProsus,which became Europe's largest consumer Internet company on its market debut. Share values gained over 25 percent on the day of itsIPO,with Prosus' market capitalisation exceeding 125 billion pounds (US$138 billion). Prosus reported profits of $4.2 billion for its fiscal year ending 31 March 2019.

Naspers Labs, designed in partnership with RLabs and its founder Marlon Parker,launched in 2019 as an economic initiative for unemployed youth in South Africa.

In May 2021, Naspers announced a share swap deal with its Dutch-listed subsidiary Prosus in an attempt to reduce the discount between the asset value of the companies and their market capitalisation.The deal, successfully completed in August 2021, reduced Naspers' stake in Prosus to 56.92% and gave Prosus an approximately 49% share in its parent company.

Following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,Naspers (through its subsidiary Prosus) wrote off its 27.29% investment, previously valued at US$769 million, in the Russian internet companyVK.

Controversies

Apartheid

Documents collected byOpenSecretsrevealed how Naspers funded theNational Party(NP) duringapartheid,and that the NP also held 74,000 shares in Naspers in 1984.

In a letter written toF.W. de Klerk,on 17 August 1989, Naspers' then managing director Ton Vosloo reaffirmed the company's support of the National Party. Vosloo reminded de Klerk of its donation of R150,000 (approximately R1-million today), made to the NP before the 1987 elections. The company had then also pledged a further R220,000 in support of the NP ahead of South Africa's last race-based general elections, in September 1989. Vosloo ended his letter, promising funding to the NP in Transvaal, by adding that "our newspaper Beeld in the Transvaal is your ally and we trust that this formidable combination will wipe out the competition."

In 1997, theTruth and Reconciliation Commissionrequested that Naspers make a submission about the years between 1960 and 1994 (thus, broadly, between theSharpeville massacre,in March 1960, and the firstdemocratic electionsof April 1994), specifically, the media's role during this period. Naspers refused to comply, which led to 127 Naspers employees each making an individual submission to the TRC, apologising for their role in the apartheid years. They said Naspers newspapers had formed an integral part of the power structure which implemented and maintained apartheid through, for instance, supporting the NP in elections and referendums.

In 2015, Media24 CEO Esmare Weideman issued a case-limited apology citing a single employee, Conrad Sidego, who had experienced problems with separate facilities. She did not issue an unqualified apology for Naspers's role in supporting apartheid.

Assets

Naspers has two principal business units; Prosus & Naspers South Africa.

Prosus

Prosus is the largest consumer internet company in Europe, and among the largest technology investors in the world, operating across a variety of platforms and geographies.As part of a share swap deal announced in May 2021,Prosus acquired a 49% stake in its parent company Naspers.Other major holdings of Prosus include:

• E-commerce– includingOLX(100%)
• Fintech– includingPayU(98.8%)
• Food delivery – includingiFood(54.8%),Delivery Hero(22.3%) andSwiggy(38.8%)
• Retail – including eMag (80.1%)
• Travel – including its associate,Ctrip(6%)
• Mobility –Bykea
• EdTech–Codecademy,Stack Overflow,Brainly,Udemy

Prosus is also the largest shareholder of social Internet platforms:

• Tencent(26.16%)
• VK(27.29%)– this investment was written off in March 2022.

Naspers South Africa

Naspers South Africa operates three media, e-commerce & venture capital businesses in South Africa:

Media24

Naspers wholly ownsMedia24,Africa's largest publisher, printer, and distributor of magazines and related products, as well its largest newspaper publisher.

Takealot.com

Naspers wholly ownsTakealot.com,South Africa's largest online retailer.

Naspers Foundry

Naspers Foundry is a South Africa-focused early stage venture capital fund that invests in firms that "address big societal needs". Naspers Foundry ceased investment operations in March 2023, though it maintained its existing investments.

See also

• List of South African mass media

External links

• Official website
• Naspers companiesgrouped atOpenCorporates