Naspers gets a new chairman and drops $40 million in Brazil

Two bits of news yesterday from Naspers. The first being that non exec chair of Naspers, Ton Vosloo has resigned from the group. He has been chairman for 23 years. He has been a board member for 32 years. Ton was a journalist from 1956 to 1983, he was editor of the Beeld from 1977 to 1983. He knows how to use a typewriter, I am guessing that he has not used one for two decades however, I may be wrong. He is 76, been working for 50 years plus (admittedly in a non executive capacity since 1998 at Naspers, it is still hard and stressful work). Ton was managing director of Naspers from 1984 to 1992, executive chair thereafter until 1997, and has been in this role since then. Ton will take 160 thousand shares, currently worth 292.8 million Rand into retirement with him.

Koos Bekker at the same time as Ton heading into the sunset, returns to take the role from his old friend, Bekker becomes non executive chair of Naspers. Bekker is worth a little more, directly and indirectly he owns 16 376 499 shares. Which at last evenings closing price is worth 29 968 993 170 Rand. A big number. An after tax dividend of 59 million Rand per annum. These share figures are as of March last year, from the annual report. When it gets to this level, I guess for Koos Bekker it is not really about the money, it is not the fact that he has made MANY South Africans directly and indirectly a lot wealthier - The Public Investment Corporation of South Africa owns 60 382 560 shares, worth 110.5 billion Rand. The PIC is 4 years older than Naspers, Naspers turns 100 this year. As at the end of the 2014 financial year, the PIC managed around 1.6 trillion Rand in assets, with a mere 385 employees. If you ever wanted to know who the PIC manages money for, here goes, from their last annual report:



Good work, the GEPF has 1.2 million active members (from more than 325 government departments), 350 thousand beneficiaries and pensioners. Those 385 employees have a great responsibility to 3 out of every 100 South Africans. The other bit of Naspers news, a little off the radar was Naspers Drops Off $40 Million For Brazilian Mobile Conglomerate Movile. Who? Well, here goes: Movile is the industry leader for development of mobile content and commerce platforms in Latin America. It is a Brazilian App designer. Local commerce, local content. 40 million dollars is nearly half a billion Rand. Founder Fabricio Bloisi is listed as one of the contact people on the Internet CEO's in the Naspers Fact Sheet - January 2015. Naspers is always looking for quality people to partner with, this chap and this company Movile looks fabulous.