Today, Prosus and Naspers announced the start of an open-ended share repurchase programme of Prosus and Naspers shares. This programme will be funded by regularly selling small numbers of Tencent shares and is designed to efficiently unlock immediate value for shareholders and increase NAV per share over time.
The programme will be active as long as the discount to NAV is at elevated levels.
Prosus, the Dutch-based technology investor controlled by South Africa’s Naspers, said the programme is designed to increase net asset value per share, taking advantage of both Prosus’s and Naspers’s trading discounts to their underlying net asset value.
“Today, we are announcing an open-ended share repurchase programme that is designed to unlock significant value for our shareholders over time,” Bob van Dijk, CEO of Prosus and Naspers.
“We expect the programme to significantly increase the net asset values per share for Prosus and Naspers.
“It will also rebalance our asset base towards our fast-growing non-Tencent assets, whose value we expect to increase over time while retaining exposure to Tencent’s significant value creation potential.
“We will continue to execute our long-term strategy to build valuable consumer internet businesses to deliver sustainable returns over the long term.”
Naspers and Prosus have appointed intermediaries to execute the Repurchase Programme and sale of Tencent Shares, within parameters set by the Group during open periods and subject to applicable law and regulation.
The intermediaries will execute the Repurchase Programme and sale of Tencent Shares independently from, and uninfluenced by, Naspers and Prosus.
The Repurchase Programme will commence immediately and is open-ended. Prosus intends to cancel the Prosus Shares repurchased by it under the Repurchase Programme in due course, so as to reduce its issued share capital.
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