No plan to sell the Tencent stake

NASPERS does not plan to spin off its $114 billion (R1.47 trillion) stake in Tencent, its boss said yesterday, a push back against investors urging a break-up to close a widening discount between its market value and that of its one-third stake in the Chinese internet company. Founded in 1915, Naspers has transformed itself from an apartheid-era newspaper publisher into an $85bn multinational with private equity-style investments in e-commerce platforms such as auction sites, online retail and e-classifieds. But it owes much of that valuation to its 33 percent Tencent stake, which is worth about $114bn, or 20 percent more than Naspers itself. The discount has prompted some investors to urge chief executive Bob van Dijk to find ways to narrow it. “From the moment Tencent was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, some had been asking us to do that. You can imagine how unhappy shareholders would be if I had done that 10 years ago,” Van Dijk said. The value of Naspers’ stake surged from around $231 million to around $114bn in 2004 when Tencent floated on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Tencent, which runs China’s biggest gaming and social media firm, shot past forecasts to post its highest quarterly profit in more than two years last month. It is among the firms best placed to benefit from the roll out of faster 4G mobile network in China because it uses its instant messaging platform WeChat – a social media fabric in China – to sell other services such a music and video streaming.