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Even though Tencent was down 1% in Hong Kong yesterday, Naspers closed up 4%. A divergence that doesn't happen often. In the case of Naspers, the company gave a roadmap for the listing of their international assets.
As you will already know, Naspers plans to list their international assets in Amsterdam; for now the new company is still called 'NewCo'. Management feel that Naspers has become too big for the JSE All-share, which is part of the reason that Naspers trades at such a big discount to its NAV. This new listing will help spread the load and hopefully lead to a narrowing of the NAV gap.
The South African listed Naspers will own around 73% of the Amsterdam listed 'NewCo', along with the South African assets of Media24 and Takealot. The split will be happening on the 17 July, assuming that shareholders approve this at a meeting on the last Friday of June.
What does this practically mean for you? At the beginning of July, as a Naspers shareholder, you will be given the choice of getting more Naspers shares or getting shares in NewCo. Taking more Naspers shares will be like nothing happened in your life. If you opt to take NewCo shares, there will be capital gains to pay. We feel that the NewCo assets are the ones that you want to own, so we will be leaning towards owning more NewCo and less Naspers. For most of our clients, that will be the best choice. If you are a trust or a company though, where your capital gains tax is on the high end, you will have to apply more thought. If you are a Vestact client, we will communicate with you directly around what we think is best for your account.
