Africa’s biggest company to woo US, UK investors
JOHANNESBURG — Naspers will approach investors in the US and the UK this week about a bond issue as Africa’s biggest company by market value continues its acquisition-hungry quest to expand its Internet businesses.
The proceeds for the bond will shore up the company’s balance sheet for future growth opportunities and will also be used to refinance some of its current debt, Naspers chief executive officer Bob van Dijk said by phone. While Naspers spends about $500 million on mergers and acquisitions a year there is no set target and decisions depend on finding the right businesses and opportunities, he said. The Cape Townbased company reported fullyear earnings on Friday.
“We are focusing on building online businesses and bringing them to scale,” Van Dijk said. Naspers is looking to invest further in its classifieds, e-commerce and online payment businesses where revenue growth is accelerating, the CEO said.
Naspers, the market leader in classifieds in most of the emerging markets that it operates in, entered the US last year and now competes with wellestablished businesses such as Craigslist. The company is seeking to grow outside of a 33 percent stake in Chinese internet company Tencent Holdings, which contributes the bulk of Naspers’s $1.8 billion profit and is worth more than the South African company’s market value of about $90 billion. — Bloomberg