Prosus Lists

I'm really looking forward to the listing of Prosus (code PRX) on our market today. As a committed equities investor, I just love the way that companies evolve and then find their value on public capital markets. The term for this in trader parlance is 'price discovery'.

It has been obvious for many years that Naspers' underlying assets were worth far more than the value at which the holding company trades in the market. There has been amazing growth in the Internet and media businesses in which they invested in the last few decades. Tencent is the best of the lot, but there are many other great prospects in the portfolio.

The problem has always been that the diversified portfolio of global operations was not well understood by investors in the South African market. Conversely, global investors and tech fund managers were always put off by the primary listing of Naspers in Rands, in a secondary capital market like the JSE.

Today's reorganisation is an important step in the process of unlocking that value. Naspers is by far the most significant holding for almost every Vestact client with a local portfolio. It could be that we want to refocus those holdings on Prosus exclusively, although making that switch will have tax consequences for many holders. We will be watching with close interest and will advise you what to do every step of the way.