Our opinion on the current state of NASPERS-N(NPN)

Naspers (NPN), Africa's largest company, is a massive international social media, gaming, and IT company whose main asset is a 73% stake in Prosus (PRX), which in turn owns 26% of Tencent—a Hong Kong-listed company providing social media services and gaming in China. Tencent boasts 10 of China's top 20 mobile applications, reaching over 1.1 billion users. Naspers itself maintains an archaic capital structure dominated by its 907,128 unlisted "A" ordinary shareholders. Each "A" ordinary share has 1,000 times the voting power of the 438.3 million "N" shares listed, effectively controlling the company with 67.4% of the vote.

Naspers has many other interests, primarily in e-commerce, operating in 120 countries worldwide. It recently invested an additional $500 million in Letgo—an American classifieds platform with over 100 million users. It also owns Takealot and Mr. D Food in South Africa, among other interests—though these are overshadowed by its stake in Tencent. The discount of the share to its inherent value is mainly due to its "N" share structure, which is frowned upon in the investment community.

On 11th September 2019, Naspers separately listed Prosus on the Euronext in Amsterdam, housing all its international assets, including its stakes in Tencent, Mail.Ru, and other internet brands. Naspers held 73% of Prosus, with a 25% free float. The Euronext listing mitigates the risk inherent in the rand, elevating Prosus to become Europe's largest consumer internet company. Tencent continued to grow throughout the pandemic as more people turned to online gaming.

On 27th January 2023, Bloomberg announced that Naspers intended to retrench about 30% of its workforce. In its financial results for the six months ending 30th September 2023, the company reported a 9% increase in revenue from continuing operations and a 90% increase in core headline earnings. The company stated, "This was primarily due to improved profitability of our e-commerce consolidated businesses and equity-accounted investments, particularly Tencent, and higher net interest income during the period. At 30 September 2023, the ongoing open-ended share repurchase programme has reduced the Naspers net share count by 14% and generated US$25 billion for our shareholders."

Technically, since October 2022, the share has staged a recovery but has been moving sideways since March 2023. We still regard this share as underpriced at current levels. On 18th September 2023, the company announced that Bob van Dijk would resign as CEO with immediate effect. On 17th May 2024, the company announced that Fabricio Bloisi would take over as CEO of both Naspers and Prosus, effective from 1st July 2024.